Missile launch the world should be afraid of

Missile launch the world should be afraid of

“TODAY we call on all nations to cut all ties with North Korea,” the United States has demanded at the United Nations.

US Ambassador Nikki Haley warned: “We have never sought war with North Korea, and still today we do not seek it. If war does come, it will be because of continued acts of aggression like we witnessed yesterday ... If war comes, make no mistake, the North Korean regime will be utterly destroyed.”

Ambassador Haley also demanded China cut off the supply of all fuel oil to North Korea.

Kim Jong Un’s regime made a choice, she said - “and with this choice comes a critical choice for the rest of the world.”

But Russia’s ambassador was nonplussed.

Vasily Nebenzya called on the US and South Korea to cancel military exercises in December as this would “only inflame an already explosive situation”

MISSILE LEAPS AHEAD

North Korea’s latest intercontinental missile launch was packed full of surprises.

First came its range — capable of covering almost the entire United States.

But it was conducted at night.

And preparations appeared to be carried out unusually fast.

Military think-tank Stratfor analyst Rodger Baker has told CNBC these last two factors present an intimidating challenge to countering any hostile launch.

“By testing late at night, and potentially even being able to move the missile out of its facility and launch it quickly — which is what appears happened — it was a way to demonstrate they have the ability to launch with the minimal ability of the US or South Korea to strike it on the pad before it got off the ground,” he says.

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This means the window of opportunity for attack aircraft and helicopters to scramble and get into place is now much shorter.

Surveillance satellites and radio-traffic indicators will still notice something is happening. It’s just that reaction times have been cut short. Anti-missile ships and mobile launchers also have less time to get into position.

Key to this rapid-launch ability — along with the robustness of the missile itself — is a fleet of Chinese logging trucks converted to act as ICBM launch platforms.

These can quickly and efficiently carry their deadly cargo to remote and difficult-to-observe locations from where a missile can be unleashed.

PHOTOS REVEAL DETAILS

Analysts have been scouring video and images released by North Korea of the launch this morning. They’ve come to the conclusion yesterday’s launch represented the first by a new model.

Dubbed Hwasong-15, it seems to be a new design: broader and bigger with paired rocket motors in its first stage unlike the earlier Hwasong-14.

Others suggest it may be the top module of a Hwasong-14 married to a new lower-stage booster which offers much greater propellant capacity, giving it greater range.

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“This was probably the test of a new engine they’ve been working on,” Mr Baker said. “We’ve seen them doing ground tests and a lot of back-end work over the past several months.”

Ok this makes the HS-14 look like child’s play. The HS-15 is a monster. Everything is...bigger. https://t.co/pgbiZ7Lq9w — Vipin Narang (@NarangVipin) November 29, 2017

Mr Baker said this was a test that demonstrates very clearly that the North Koreans have the ability — at least with some size warhead, it’s unclear what weight this was carrying — to strike Washington DC or New York City. They can now reach all of the continental United States, except maybe a little bit of southern Florida.

KIM’S KOREA BURSTS WITH PRIDE

Yesterday’s ICBM test — its third — was more sophisticated than any previously tested, North Korean state media declared overnight.

It also released a slew of video and pictures purporting to show the preparations surrounding the launch, and the launch itself.

One is of a gleeful Kim Jong-un, cigarette nonchalantly in hand, looking to the skies as screens relay missile telemetry in the background.

“The ICBM Hwasong-15 type weaponry system is an intercontinental ballistic rocket tipped with super-large heavy warhead which is capable of striking the whole mainland of the US,” the North’s official news agency KCNA said.

North Korean state television brought out Ri Chun-Hee, a star presenter who only appears for significant developments, to announce the landmark.

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“Kim Jong-un declared with pride that now we have finally realised the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force, the cause of building a rocket power,” she said

Pyongyang said the missile reached an altitude of 4475 kilometres and splashed down 950 kilometres from its launch site.

At least one Western expert said the missile’s lofted trajectory suggested an actual range of 13,000 kilometres — enough to hit every major US city.