North Korea will likely be ready to test an intercontinental ballistic missile within this year, a senior U.S. Defense Department official told Congress this week, believed to be the first time any senior U.S. official has expressed such a view in public.At a hearing of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday, Robert Soofer, deputy assistant secretary of defense for nuclear and missile defense policy, said: "I would just repeat what the intelligence community says. North Korea is poised to conduct its first ICBM test in 2017."Soofer made the comment while answering a question …READ FULL ARTICLE
