Revealed, the REAL reason Trump can’t take out Kim Jong-un or blitz his nukes – because it’s impossible for US spies to infiltrate North Korea
ELITE troops will struggle to assassinate North Korean dictator Kim Jon-un and take out his nuclear arsenal because the country is a "black hole" for US spies, it has been claimed
A top former US spy says military action against the Stalinist regime is a risk because North Korea is almost impossible for spies to infiltrate and much of its arsenal is underground and cannot be seen with satellites.
Douglas Paal, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a former National Security Council staffer for former President George Bush, told : "You don't want to stir the hornet's nest and the hornets are still there when you're done.
"If you're giving options to the president... one of the very first things we have to say is we can strike what we can see, but we don't know what we can't see.
"Generally speaking, I don't think it's overstating to say we're still groping in the dark."
And Bruce Klingner, who spent 20 years at the CIA and DIA, added: "We obviously don’t blend well into North Korea, and even South Korea has difficulty running agents, because of differences in dialect and pronunciation.
"Any strangers stand out, so in a country where people will report on their families and neighbours, certainly any stranger will get reported."
This week US President Donald Trump said that military action is "certainly" an option against North Korea and a senior administration official said America was still assessing last weekend's underground nuclear explosion.
"Military action would certainly be an option," Trump told a White House news conference. "I would prefer not going the route of the military, but it's something certainly that could happen."
Yesterday the Sun revealed how the tubby tyrant will escape to a vast complex of underground tunnels if a nuclear war breaks out.
And a military expert says that if the brutal leader of the Stalinist regime does go underground he will be harder to take out than 9/11 terror mastermind Osama bin Laden.
Earlier this week it emerged that the elite US Navy Seal team that killed Osama bin Laden is training the South Korean military to assassinate Kim Jong un.
Seal Team Six, the group sent to Pakistan in 2011 to kill Bin Laden, is taking part in secretive drills alongside South Korean commandos to take out the North Korean leader in the event of a war.
But the fact that most of North Korea’s military bases are buried deep underground and Kim Jong un's fanatical bodyguards and security measures will make an assassination extremely difficult.
Experts, using information provided by defectors and satellite images, say it is the most heavily-fortified country in the world.
Admiral Lord West, the former head of the Royal Navy and a decorated war hero, says a "decapitation strike" to take out Kim would be harder than killing Osama bin Laden, who evaded his pursuers for a decade after the September 11 terror attacks.
He said: "Although the US and allied intelligence is extremely good and North Korea has been a target of interest for a long time it's extremely difficult to to be able to hit every bit of the tunnel network.
"The tunnels that extended into South Korea were there for a long time before they were discovered.
"Killing him will be extremely difficult."
Today it was reported that Korean tyrant Kim Jong-un might launch another missile TOMORROW to celebrate the anniversary of the founding of the brutal regime.
South Korea fears the dictator may launch another intercontinental ballistic missile when it celebrates the milestone tomorrow.
Seoul's Unification Ministry spokeswoman Eugene Lee said Friday that Pyongyang could potentially conduct its next missile tests this weekend or around October 10 - another North Korean holiday marking the founding of its ruling party.
North Korea has previously marked key dates with displays of military power, but now its tests appear to be driven by the need to improve missile capabilities.
The North held its sixth and the most powerful nuclear test to date on Sunday in what it claimed was a detonation of a thermonuclear weapon built for its intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM).
The country tested its developmental Hwasong-14 ICBMs twice in July and analysts say the flight data from the launches indicate the missiles could hit the US, including major cities such as Los Angeles and Chicago.
Political prisoners were used to dig 19ft wide tunnels deep into the granite Mantapsan mountain so nuclear weapons tests could be carried out.
Many died from radiation constructing the Punggye-ri sit, where North Korea claims to have successfully tested their latest nuke.
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The US army has estimated there are 6,000-8,000 subterranean facilities in the country.
Defectors reportedly helped the US map the network. Much of it is under Pyongyang and could be used as a bunker.
The North also has around 84 secret tunnels in mountains bordering the South. They were built to send out 30,000 troops an hour. Some are big enough for tanks. Others have a railway.
The South has blocked four tunnels it found straddling into its territory.
Missile launchers also overlook the South’s capital Seoul. It is believed Kim has enough non- nuclear shells to destroy the city. He also has chemical weapons stored in unknown locations.
His dad Kim Jong-il built a huge base in Mount Baekdusan near China in case of an attack.
Grandad Kim Il-Sung, the country’s founder, used a forest as his HQ in WW2.
In 1963 he said: “The entire nation must be made into a fortress. We must dig into the ground to protect ourselves.”