NORTH KOREA’S
VERY LATEST
ICBM TEST
John W. Spring
At approximately 1:30 p.m. EST or 10:30 a.m. PST on Tuesday, November 28, 2017, which was at 3:00 a.m. in Pyongyang on Wednesday, November 29, 2017, North Korea launched an ICBMcalled Hwasong-15, which takes its name from the “fire star” or the planet Mars, named for the Roman god of War. Hwasong-15 had reached 4,475 kilometers or 2,800 miles into space, which was ten times higher than the International Space Station or twice as high as any satellite in a low orbit. If Hwasong-15 had taken a different trajectory course at a much lower altitude, it would be able to travel over 13,000 kilometers or 8,100 miles that could cover all of the United States on the mainland of North America.
The Hwasong-15 that was just very recently tested may actually be the Hwasong-13 that was to become a solid-fueled ICBM, which would have additional advantages as mobility and storage.
As stated by MIT associate professor Vipin Navang, “They wouldn’t have to miniaturize much,” because the missile [Hwasong-15] is so much larger than previous versions it could carry a very powerful thermonuclear weapon. According to professor Navang, “More broadly, though the demonstrated range should leave no doubt that North Korea can hold the entire continental United States at risk, even if that range was with a lighter dummy warhead, a nuclear warhead wouldn’t attenuate the range enough to give comfort to those who don’t believe that North Korea cannot strike New York or DC.”
Unfortunately, America does not have an effective Missile Defense System program, which was scrapped early during the Obama Administration and would require a decade to function again.
Despite downplaying North Korea’s missile capability by the so-called “experts,” with their very special access to the news media, we must finally become aware of this thermonuclear threat that can now reach us in such a short period of time measured in minutes rather than hours. JWS
Note: Please review my earlier articles as and attachment. JWS
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