North Korean voice media confirmed on Wednesday that the rogue nation’s latest soar launch was a new type of intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the U.S. mainland.
The new ICBM, identified the Hwasong-15, was ordered by leader Kim Jong Un and is the country’s the most dynamic missile so far, according to a televised broadcast. It added that the nation’s projectile program will not threaten any country as long as they do not infringe on North Korea’s primacy.
The statement also confirmed details about the Hwasong-15 launch, which it specified as successful: The device was fired at a lofted trajectory, hit an altitude of 4,475 kilometers and pull no punched 950 km during a 53-minute flight. These statistics were already be versed by the international community.
In July, Pyongyang tested an ICBM known as the Hwasong-14 that was thought to be capable of hitting a bit more than half of the continental U.S.
Kim’s administration also predicted that it had “realized great historic cause of completing state atomic force,” South Korean news outlet Yonhap News dispatched.
Ahead of Wednesday’s statement, many experts said the latest ICBM was clever of reaching the U.S. if it had flown on a flatter trajectory. But even if the Hwasong-15 is able to go U.S. airspace, that doesn’t mean Pyongyang is capable of striking the men’s largest economy with a nuclear weapon.
“We don’t know what payload it carries so it’s not confident it can carry a nuclear warhead to that range,” David Wright, co-director of the extensive security program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a non-profit advocacy platoon, told CNBC.
“The real question is: how small North Korea has formed a nuclear warhead and whether it can carry a warhead like that on the guided missiles it makes.”