The conventional wisdom (pardon the pun) is that North Korea does not yet have a warhead small enough to fit on a ballistic missile. They would need another jump in miniaturization to get one small enough to fit onto a smaller diameter SLBM.
The danger here is that the US is using it’s own history as a basis for creating a timeline for how long all this will take to come to fruition. Copycats never take as long as those who originate a given technology.
#20: Great observation re the technology timelines of copycats.
If Red China gives N. Korea miniaturized warheads, it will be a real gamechanger and war tripwire.
Never underestimate the Red Chinese ability to do something. That has been one of our biggest intelligence faults and diplomatic failures.