North Korea IBCM Launch Shows Major U.S. Cities in Range

President Trump responded swiftly with a statement yesterday that put the North Koreans on notice that the United States takes the threat very seriously and is prepared to take whatever action is needed to eliminate the threat.

North Korea’s test launch yesterday of another intercontinental ballistic missile—the second such test in less than a month—is only the latest reckless and dangerous action by the North Korean regime.
The United States condemns this test and rejects the regime’s claim that these tests—and these weapons—ensure North Korea’s security. In reality, they have the opposite effect.

By threatening the world, these weapons and tests further isolate North Korea, weaken its economy, and deprive its people. The United States will take all necessary steps to ensure the security of the American homeland and protect our allies in the region.”

Joining him in stern opposition were South Korea and Japan, both in the most immediate jeopardy of North Korean aggression.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile was launched from North Korea’s northern Jagang province near the border with China. President Moon Jae-in presided over an emergency meeting of the National Security Council, which called for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council and stronger sanctions on North Korea.”

Because the North Korean missile launches have been landing in the Sea of Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe asserted the launch is a ‘serious and real threat’ to the country’s security.

Japanese government spokesman Yoshihide Suga reported the missile flew for about 45 minutes — about five minutes longer than the first.

He said Japan had lodged a strong protest with North Korea. “North Korea’s repeated provocative acts absolutely cannot be accepted.”

The rest of the world didn’t have as strongly worded a reaction. The French Foreign Ministry called on the United Nations to take action. It released an entirely predictable statement.

Only maximal diplomatic pressure might bring North Korea to the negotiating table.”

The French approach is the equivalent of getting the member nations to stand in a circle and try to urinate up a rope.

A word of caution to the clueless: Decades of U.N. inaction, appeasement by U.S. presidents Clinton and Obama, and ineffective sanctions haven’t worked at all to get North Korea to the table.

Meanwhile, defense experts differ widely on the threat posed by the Hwasong-14 ICBM.

David Wright of the Union of Concerned Scientists acknowledges the missile might reach the West Coast and a number of U.S. cities, given the information currently available.

[He] said that if reports of the missile’s maximum altitude and flight time are correct, it would have a theoretical range of at least 6,500 miles.”

However, there are variables to take into consideration: The North Korean capability to create a nuclear warhead to be carried by the missile; the weight of the warhead and how it might affect the missile’s range; the trajectory at which the missile is launched; and the effect of the Earth’s rotation on missile range if fired in an eastward direction.

This week, the [U. S.] Defense Intelligence Agency reportedly concluded that the North will have a reliable ICBM capable of carrying a nuclear weapon as early as next year, in an assessment that trimmed two years from the agency’s earlier estimate.”

Some defense analysts believe the Hwasong-14 missile may be too small and inaccurate to get to the desired U.S. target.

Ralph Savelsberg and James Kiessling, writing in Breaking Defense, speculate the missile may not pose a true threat at this time.

It’s too small and too close to zero payload at useful ranges.” This means the rocket might be able to travel thousands of miles, but once it got to the end of its journey it would be rendered useless.”

What defense analysts and the major media aren’t discussing is a much more real threat by a North Korean ICBM. The missile would not have to hit a major city in order to cause absolute destruction and chaos in the United States.

All Kim would need to fulfill his sick dreams is for the missile to carry a nuclear device large enough to be deployed in the atmosphere above the United States to detonate and create an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) that could effectively destroy the electric grid in most of the United States and plunge the country into total chaos.

Well aware of that threat, President Trump and his defense team vow they won’t allow North Korea to obtain an ICBM capable of delivering a nuclear warhead.

As America deals with the burden of a severe partisan divide, the anti-Trump crowd should realize that a real existential threat to the United States is growing, and those who refuse to rally around the president in a time of crisis run the risk of being branded “traitors” for eternity.

Source: The Daily Mail