NORTH KOREA FIRES ANOTHER MISSILE OVER JAPAN, HIGH ALTITUDE DEMONSTRATES IT CAN HIT ALL OF CONTINENTAL UNITED STATES

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TOKYO — North Korea claimed Wednesday that the entire U.S. mainland is within reach after “successfully” testing a new kind of intercontinental ballistic missile, which it called the Hwasong-15 and said could carry a “super large heavy warhead.”

While Pyongyang is prone to exaggeration, its boast of having all of the United States in range was in line with experts’ calculations that the missile launched Wednesday, which flew 10 times higher than the International Space Station, could theoretically reach Washington, D.C.

“With this system, we can load the heaviest warhead and strike anywhere in the mainland United States,” North Korea’s most famous newsreader, Ri Chun Hee, said in a special live broadcast on state television. “This missile is far more technologically advanced than July’s Hwasong-14. This signifies that our rocket development process has been completed.”


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If the missile had flown on a standard trajectory designed to maximize its reach, it would have had a range of more than 8,100 miles, said David Wright, co-director of the global security program at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

“Such a missile would have more than enough range to reach Washington, D.C.,” Wright said.

The U.S. capital is 6,850 miles from Pyongyang. The previous intercontinental ballistic missile tested, the Hwasong-14 tested on July 28, was in the air for 47 minutes and could have flown 6,500 miles were it on a normal trajectory. Hwasong means “Mars” in Korean.

The South Korean and Japanese governments both convened emergency national security council meetings after the launch, and both leaders talked to Trump by phone.




I think the time for talk is over. I hope the plan at this point is precisely how and when to annihilate North Korea. They are far too dangerous to be permitted to have nukes, engage in nuclear attacks or nuclear blackmail, or proliferate that technology to other rogue states or terrorist groups. Whatever the risk or cost, it pales beside allowing North Korea's threat to grow any larger.