North Korea Now Has an ICBM That Can Reach US Mainland
SputnikNews.com
11.12.2016
North Korea is now in possession of a nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile that can reach the US mainland, according to a senior US military official.
North Korea has developed an ICBM capable of delivering a nuclear payload to the US mainland, according to an anonymous US military official, who spoke with DefenseTech.com on conditions of anonymity. However, they have not yet solved a key thermal insulation problem, which means their warhead would burn up as it reenters the atmosphere over its target.
Still, “[i]t’s the threat that keeps me awake at night,” DefenseTech quotes the official saying.
Earlier this year North Korea claimed it developed a new mobile ICBM called KN-14, and later displayed it on a military parade in October. Pyongyang also claimed that month that it successfully tested heat insulation materials for the missile, but the US official could not confirm that this technology is already in use.
According to the official, the United States takes the North Korean threat seriously enough to transfer some of the “authority to counter weapons of mass destruction” from US Strategic Command to the Joint Special Operations Command.
There is almost no data available about the KN-14 capabilities, Russian defense analyst Vladimir Khrustalev wrote in Lenta.ru in October. However, most experts agree that North Korea’s claims have a somewhat solid basis.
“The most conservative estimates place its maximum theoretical range with a nuclear payload at 5,500-6,500 kilometers, with some saying that it could travel as far as 12,000,” Khrustalev wrote.
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