The United States Forces Korea (USFK) has admitted that North Korea's Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) can reach anywhere in the continental U.S., South Korea’s state-run Yonhap News Agency reported Thursday.
The Hwasong-15 has an estimated range of 12,874 kilometers (8,000 miles), according to the first official assessment of the long-range missile, which appeared in the “2019 Strategic Digest”, an annual publication by the USFK along with the United Nations Command and the Combined Forces Command.
North Korea test-fired a Hwasong-15 ICBM on Nov. 29, 2017.
North Korea has two other types of ICBMs – the Hwasong-13, with a maximum range of 5,500 km, and the Hwasong-14, which can fly as far as 12,874 km and is capable of reaching most of the continental U.S., according to the digest. Pyongyang test-fired the Hwasong-14 on July 4, 2017.
'While (North Korean leader) Kim Jong-un ordered the dismantlement of a missile test site as well as the highly publicized destruction of the nuclear testing facility at Punggye-ri, much work remains to move toward the eventual goal of final, fully verified denuclearization,' the USFK noted in the assessment.
By Gozde Bayar
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr