N. Korea claims latest missile can carry a large nuclear warhead

SEOUL — North Korea on Monday (May 15) celebrated the launch of what appeared to be its longest-range ballistic missile yet tested in a bid to bring the American mainland within striking reach, saying it was capable of carrying a “heavy nuclear warhead”.

Leader Kim Jong-un personally oversaw the test on Sunday, the official Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) said, and pictures by state media showed him gazing at the missile in a hangar before the launch. In others, he gleefully shook hands with officers and staff after the missile launch.

The weapon was launched on an unusually high trajectory, with KCNA saying it flew to an altitude of about 2,110km and travelled 787km before coming down in the Sea of Japan. That suggests a range of 4,500km or more if flown for maximum distance, analysts said.

Aside from Pyongyang’s space launches, Dr Jeffrey Lewis of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in the United States told AFP: “This is the longest-range missile North Korea has ever tested.”

On the respected 38 North website, aerospace engineering specialist John Schilling said it appeared to demonstrate an intermediate-range ballistic missile that could “reliably strike the US base at Guam” in the Pacific.

“More importantly,” he added, it “may represent a substantial advance to developing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)”.

KCNA said the new rocket was a “perfect weapon” which was “capable of carrying a large-size heavy nuclear warhead”.

North Korea is banned under United Nations resolutions from engaging in nuclear and missile development, but has conducted its fifth nuclear test and a string of missile launches since the start of last year.

The UN Security Council is due to meet on Tuesday to discuss the North’s latest missile launch, diplomats said.

Last week, South Korean elected a new president, Mr Moon Jae-in, who advocates reconciliation with Pyongyang and said at his inauguration that he was willing “in the right circumstances” to visit the North to ease tensions.

But he slammed the latest missile test as a “reckless provocation” after holding an emergency meeting with national security advisers.

Last month, the North put dozens of missiles on show at a giant military parade through the streets of Pyongyang, including one that appeared to be the type of device launched on Sunday.

There are, however, doubts whether North Korea can miniaturise a nuclear weapon sufficiently to fit it into a missile nose cone, and there is no evidence Pyongyang has mastered the technology needed to ensure the missile survives returning into Earth’s atmosphere.

North Korea described another launch earlier this year as a drill for an attack on US bases in Japan — which has long been within its range.

Mr Schilling said the ability to hit Guam, 3,400km away, was not a game-changer, but that the new missile could be a step along the way.

KCNA cited Mr Kim as saying that the US strategy of what it called “militarily browbeating only weak countries and nations which have no nukes” would never work on the North.

“If the US dares opt for a military provocation against the DPRK, we are ready to counter it,” it said. AGENCIES