“We assess that this missile was an intercontinental ballistic missile, as had been expected,” Pentagon spokesman Jeff Davis said in a statement. “The missile was launched from Mupyong-ni and traveled about 1,000km before splashing down in the Sea of Japan. We are working with our interagency partners on a more detailed assessment,” he said.

    Melissa Hanham, an expert in North Korea’s missile program from the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, said the test showed that “Alaska was in range” and a 45-minute test flight suggested it could reach New York.

    Jeffrey Lewis of the California-based Middlebury Institute of International Studies said the launch showed Los Angeles was within range of a North Korean missile, but that Chicago, New York and Washington remained just out of reach.

    “They may not have demonstrated the full range. The computer models suggest it can hit all of those targets,” he said.

    . . .

    Analysts remain skeptical as to whether North Korea has the ability to miniaturise a nuclear weapon that could be fired on such a missile.



kleinbl00:

Let's not lose our shit- those Scud missiles we all made fun of during Deseet Shield have a range of 700 km. The Jupiter missiles that precipitated the Cuban Missile Crisis had a range of 2400km and we had to destabilize the world and put them in Turkey to make them useful. At best, North Korea has a Fat Man or a Little Boy, and getting that size payload out to a thousand miles takes about an Atlas 5, not a Scud.

Assuming you'd want to.


posted 2460 days ago