North Korea sent a clear signal to the world... on where it stands in terms of weapons development
by test-firing what many experts acknowledge as an intercontinental ballistic missile this
month.
For out news features tonight, Kim Hyesung delves deeper into the type of missiles the
regime has in its arsenal... and how it developed the relevant technologies.
North Korea has long shown off its latest missiles at military parades.
And in the last 18 months alone, it has tested close to forty ballistic missiles.
But on July 4th, Pyongyang made a game changing revelation, claiming that it had successfully
tested an intercontinental ballistic missile.
The Hwasong-14 flew 930 kilometers for around 40 minutes, reaching a maximum altitude of
nearly 2800 kilometers before splashing down into the East Sea off the Korean Peninsula
to avoid hitting Japan.
Analysts say if it flew on a standard trajectory, launched at a lower angle, the Hwasong-14
could fly further than 5,500 kilometers.
-skype It's pretty clear that it is an ICBM.
An ICBM is typically defined as anything longer than 5,500 kilometers.
This appears to have at least 6000 kilometers range....it can certainly reach all of Alaska,
it may be able to reach main islands of Hawaii."
An ICBM is a long-range missile designed to carry a nuclear warhead as its payload.
During the Second World War, planes were used to drop atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima,
but ICBMs are much harder to detect and shoot down, and are considered the most effective
nuclear weapon delivery system today.
How far the missile can travel depends on payload and speed.
The lighter the payload, the further it can travel.
"The North now has the range to pass the first booster stage.
Given a standard of 600 kilograms, it can hit over 8000 kilometers.
After failing in previous tests, it looks like now they have developed a powerful engine,
possibly from its Baekdusan engine.
The speed of its engine development is surprising."
With Hwasong-14, North Korea now joins the small club of nations with ICBMs, including
superpowers like the U.S., Russia and China.
"So how has North Korea, one of the most reclusive states in the world, and with a GDP per capita
of just 700 U.S. dollars, according to UN estimates, managed to make such rapid gains
in its missile program and develop an ICBM?"
Experts believe North Korea originally reverse-engineered its missiles using Scud-B missiles from the
former Soviet Union via Egypt in the late 1970s.
In the 1980s, North Korea exported short range missiles to Iran and Pakistan, getting finance
and information on uranium enrichment in exchange.
"Also after the 1980s, they got Russian engineers due to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
We all know that they imported several, lots of missile material from China at that time.
After 2000, their missile development program became stable and they could speed up toward
ICBM technology."
Given that it's a communist social state, unlike other countries that would need billions
of U.S. dollars, North Korea can develop an ICBM with its cheap human labor cost.
-37 "The Hwasong-14 is not a lone flight test.
Since 1998, the North has tested hundreds of missiles repeatedly, with frequency soaring
since the start of Kim Jong-un's rule in 2011.
In science, there's no such thing as failure.
All these tests are an accumulation of data to learn from mistakes, modify technology
and get better.
The North Koreans are not stupid.
They've been working on this for decades."
From testing scuds like the KN-02 in the 1980s, to the first test of its mid-range Nodong
missile in the 1990s, to long-range Taepodong-2 missiles in 2009.
And in 2017, an ICBM.
North Korea reportedly has thousands of missiles that could hit South Korea or Japan, but after
adding the Hwasong-14 to its arsenal, it may now have the ability to hit the U.S.
Hwasong 14 now has the engine and range to pass the first booster stage, but given that
its just around 17 meters long, it's relatively short for an ICBM.
Shrinking the size of its nuclear warheads, as well as surviving in the final reentry
phase, where the warhead has to withstand the frictional heat generated from reentering
the Earth's atmosphere at hypersonic speeds, will be key.
-skype "The question now is can they make that small
enough, light enough and regular enough to be carried by a ballistic missile."
For the regime's legitimacy, a strategic card to negotiate with the U.S., and self-defense
against attack, North Korea has made becoming a nuclear-armed state its number one priority.
After having tested a nuclear bomb in 2006, North Korea has made another milestone in
its missile development program that could possibly change the equation of how the world
addresses the North Korean threat.
Kim Hyesung, Arirang News.