The two-stage missile launched Tuesday by North Korea will be classified by US intelligence as a brand-new missile that has not been seen before, US officials told CNN.
North Korea’s successful launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile – that experts say has a maximum range of about 4,163 miles and covers Alaska – was a display of their longest-reaching weapon yet and is putting significant pressure on President Donald Trump and his allies to have a strategy on North Korea amid deep international divisions over how to respond to an increasingly defiant regime.
North Korea has launched missiles before, including at least eight times this year, but those were all short and medium-range missiles. The new Hwasong-14 ICBM could theoretically hit targets in Alaska, but not the contiguous U.S. mainland or the larger islands of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean.
Trump said North Korea’s plan to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of hitting the United States “won’t happen” before his inauguration and has since repeatedly talked tough on the issue.