U.S. officials report North Korea is preparing for another test launch of its BM-25 Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missile for some time in the next three days. This test would come only a few days before the U.S. presidential election on November 8. With between a 2,500 and a 4,000 kilometer range, a fully operational Musudan...
According to a South Korean military official, the U.S. Sea-Based X-band Radar (SBX) platform has finished a month-long deployment to the Korean Peninsula and is enroute back to Hawaii. Designed to provide high-resolution radar imagery of ballistic missiles, the SBX was likely carrying out a surveillance mission against North Korea’s missile tests carried out on October 15...
Last week, North Korea conducted what was likely to be the seventh and eight attempted launches of the Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missile. United States Strategic Command detected both launches and assessed both tests to be failures, making for seven such failures of the missile this year. The only successful test of the Musudan, which happened on June 22,...
Following its August 2016 SLBM test and a September 2016 nuclear test by North Korea, evidence indicates that Pyongyang has started construction of a new ballistic missile submarine. Commercial satellite imagery shows heightened activity around the Sinpo South Shipyard, where the majority of North Korea’s submarines have been built. The shipyard recently underwent a revitalization...
On September 5, 2016, North Korea test-fired a salvo of three No-Dong ballistic missiles. The missiles were launched from areas around the Hwangju county in North Hwanghae province and traveled around 1,000 km until they landed in the Sea of Japan. Japan’s Defense Minister Tomomi Inada said the launch constituted a “serious threat” to the country’s...
The Unha launch is hardly the basis for panic, but it is time for certain measures to ensure security and stability. Coming on the heels of the North’s fourth nuclear detonation, the launch reflects both continued technical advances and their sustained ICBM ambitions. These recent events mean that active measures to counter North Korea’s missile program will likely take on renewed importance.
On the morning of February 7, North Korea launched an Unha-type rocket, headed due south. The rocket then apparently orbited an “earth observation satellite” called Kwangmyongsong-4 (lode star), reportedly weighing 200 kilograms, about twice the size of a satellite by the same name orbited in December 2012...
North Korea’s fourth nuclear test has provoked renewed calls among leading South Korean lawmakers for South Korea to obtain its own nuclear deterrent force. Public opinion has also become more supportive of a nuclear-armed South Korea.
