전문가들 "北 ICBM 美 본토 공격 거의 완성 단계" 재진입기술력은 의문 평가 엇갈려 Some experts acknowledge North Korea has completed ICBM developments in terms factors like flight trajectory.
But questions still linger on how far the regime has advanced various relevant technologies.
Kim Ji-yeon delves deeper to find out more.
North Korea has reportedly advanced greatly in the development of inter-continental ballistic missiles, by improving flight trajectory, accuracy and the miniaturization of nuclear weapons, which are essential for the operational deployment of its nuclear weapons program.
Voice of America cited missile expert Jeffrey Lewis of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies to report that Pyeongyang has proved through its ICBMs, the Hwasong 14 and Hwasong 15,... that it could reach the U.S. mainland.
Moreover, the expert said the North has already overcome one of the biggest challenges... which is designing warheads capable of withstanding the heat and huge pressure that come with the re-entry into the atmosphere.
"The payload fairing of the Hwasong 14 or 15 is in the round shape for multi-warheads... which means it's been conducting test-fires of such weapons. The tech related to the re-entry into the atmosphere has reached a certain level of development."
However, a South Korean military source has firmly rebuffed the possibility of North Korea overcoming technological obstacles associated with re-entry into the atmosphere... pointing at the fact that test-fired missiles were not positioned at the right angle.
The source said the regime needs to verify material used on the warheads to see if they could withstand re-entering into the atmosphere... saying the tests conducted on the Hwasong 14 and 15 were fired at high angles reaching altitudes of 4-thousand-500 kilometers.... altering their trajectories to less than one-thousand kilometers.
That's significantly less than their usual flight trajectories... of 13-thousand kilometers for the Hwasong-15... similar to that of the U.S.'s Minuteman-3 ICBM.
The source did point out however at the possibility that North Korea could have covertly imported the technology or the actual warhead from Russia or China.
Kim Ji-yeon, Arirang News.
#advanced #development #NorthKorea
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