What we know about North Korea’s new ICBM
North Korean state media said on Friday that leader Kim Jong Un had directly guided the launch of the weapon, known as the Hwasong-17, its most advanced to date. The report described the launch as a “powerful nuclear war deterrent” and quoted Kim as saying the country’s forces were “fully ready” for potential military confrontation with the United States. The huge weapon could, at least theoretically, put the entire US mainland in range of a North Korean nuclear warhead, but there’s a lot of unknowns about the missile’s capability to deliver a nuclear payload on target. Here’s a look at the missile launched Thursday.What is the missile’s range?North Korean state media Friday released pictures showing the massive, liquid-fueled missile being fired from a mobile launcher at Pyongyang International Airport.The report from the Korean Central News Agency said the missile hit a maximum altitude of 6,248.5 kilometers (3,905 miles), flew a distance of 1,090 kilometers (681 miles) and had a flight time of 68 minutes before it “landed accurately in the planned waters” between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. That closely matched the estimates of Japanese monitors, who said the missile fell within Japan’s exclusive economic zone, about 150 kilometers (93 miles) west of Oshima Peninsula in Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost main island.That is the highest and longest duration North Korean missile test on record.”(Kim) said these are all the things that North Korea is going to do and that included a multiple warhead ICBM. a solid-propellant ICBM, launching a military satellite, and even even putting a nuclear-powered submarine to sea,” Lewis said.”I don’t think he’s going to stop until that list is completed,” Lewis said.Previously, North Korea has announced plans to enhance the accuracy of its missiles and increase the range up to 15,000 kilometers (9,320 miles).”I think we are firmly in a period of missile tests, nuclear tests and tension, that’s probably going to last for a year or so,” Lewis said.
