Last update added on December 2.
This morning at about 3:00 local time, North Korea launched its most advanced Hwasong-15 ICBM which allegedly should be able to strike the "whole" of U.S. mainland. Its features are as follows:
- The Hwasong-15 is a new type of intercontinental ballistic missile and an upgrade of Hwasong-14.
- It was fired at 2:48 a.m. local time [2:18 Beijing Time] from a mobile launcher in Pyongsong, South Pyongan Province. [Reported times of launch differ according to different time bases.]
- The missile reached a height of 4,475 kilometers (2,800 miles), higher than ever before, and splashed down off the Japanese coast, within the country's Exclusive Economic Zone.
- The missile was fired on a lofted trajectory, where the missile flies very high to cover a relatively short horizontal distance. David Wright, an expert with the Union of Concerned scientists said that if it had been fired on a standard trajectory, the ICBM would have been capable of traveling 13,000 kilometers, or 8,100 miles.
- In comparison with earlier tested missiles, the Hwasong-15 can hold more fuel and payload, and its flight should be more stable due to a more sophisticated propulsion system using two instead of one engines in combination with additional steering engines.
- South Korea immediately responded with a "precision missile strike drill," matching the same flight distance. In a joint operation lasting 20 minutes after N Korea's ICBM launch, one "Dark Warrior - 2" type of ballistic missile, one "Sea Star - 2" ship-to-ground missile and one "SPICE - 2000" missile were fired by allied units.
[Editor's Note: What the Chinese article is calling "Dark Warrior 玄武" and which reminds a legendary tortoise general in Chinese lore, is identical with South Korea's "Hyunmoo - 2" short-range ballistic missile SRBM that makes part of the allied "kill chain" in missile defence.]
Mobile launchers for South Korea's Yunmoo-2c [环球时报]
[News quoted from CNN and XinHua 新华 as well as from other sources]
朝鲜若核攻击死伤会有多少？ 请看这张地图
How many would die or get wounded in a N Korean nuclear attack ? - Look at the map !
After a N Korean 150 kt nuke attack on New York, more than
one million people would die or get wounded within 24 hours.
[Epoch Times 大纪元 on 1st December 2017]
N Korea not fearing sanctions; a cornered beast,
however, will possibly do something desperate.
[Voice of America - Chinese on December 2, 2017]
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