N Korea's Hwasong-15 ICBM can strike anywhere in US mainland: USFK

SEOUL, July 11 (Bernama) -- The United States Forces Korea (USFK) has said that North Korea's Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is capable of reaching anywhere in the United States (US) mainland, its first official assessment of the long-range missile, Yonhap news agency reported.

The Hwasong-15 ICMB that the communist country test-fired on Nov 29, 2017, has an estimated range of 8,000 miles, or 12,874 kilometers, which is "capable of striking any part of the continental US," according to the "2019 Strategic Digest," an annual publication by the USFK along with the United Nations Command and the Combined Forces Command.

Following its successful launch of the ICMB last year, North Korea has claimed that it is the first missile capable of putting the whole US within its range. In its 2018 defence white paper, South Korea stopped short of describing it as having a range of over 10,000 km.

According to the magazine, Pyongyang has two other types of ICBMs: the Hwasong-13, which can fly as far as 5,500 km, and the Hwasong-14 missile with an estimated range of 12,874 km, which is capable of "reaching most of the continental US" The North test-fired the Hwasong-14 on July 4, 2017.

"Although 2018 saw a welcomed respite from recurrent North Korean provocations in 2016 and 2017, unchanged is the fundamental challenge the South Korea-US Alliance faces in terms of the threat posed by North Korea," the USFK said in the magazine.

Since November 2017, North Korea has abided by its self-declared moratorium on nuclear and ICMB tests as dialogue on its nuclear weapons programme with the US and peace efforts between the two Koreas has taken place. But it conducted major weapons tests twice in May 2019 involving short-range missiles amid stalled denuclearisation talks.

"While (North Korean leader) Kim Jong Un ordered the dismantlement of a missile test site as well as the highly publicised destruction of the nuclear testing facility at Punggye-ri, much work remains to move toward the eventual goal of final, fully verified denuclearisation," the USFK noted.

-- BERNAMA