×
GreekEnglish

×
  • Politics
  • Diaspora
  • World
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Culture
  • Sports
  • Cooking
Thursday
18
Dec 2025
weather symbol
Athens 14°C
  • Home
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • World
  • Diaspora
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Culture
  • Sports
  • Mediterranean Cooking
  • Weather
Contact follow Protothema:
Powered by Cloudevo
> World

North Korea says it has successfully tested an ICBM?

"That range would not be enough to reach the lower 48 states or the large islands of Hawaii, but would allow it to reach all of Alaska"

Newsroom July 4 10:32

North Korea said on Tuesday that it had successfully conducted its first test of an intercontinental ballistic missile, claiming a milestone in its efforts to build nuclear weapons capable of hitting the mainland United States.

Tuesday’s launch was the first missile test since President Trump and his South Korean counterpart, Moon Jae-in, agreed to put more pressure on the country to come to the negotiating table.

The missile took off from the Banghyon airfield in the northwestern town of Kusong and flew 578 miles before landing in the sea between North Korea and Japan, the South Korean military said in a statement. Military officials were still analyzing flight data to determine what type of missile had been used.

It was the first missile test by the North since it launched land-to-sea cruise missiles off its east coast on June 8. Under a series of United Nations Security Council resolutions, North Korea is prohibited from developing or testing ballistic missiles.

The Japanese government said the missile landed in its so-called exclusive economic zone off its western coast. The United States Pacific Command said it had tracked the intermediate-range missile for 37 minutes. In Seoul, Mr. Moon, who during his election campaign this year advocated talks with the North, met with senior security officials to discuss the latest provocation, his office said.

While the North is believed to have made significant progress in its weapons programs, experts believe it still has a long way to go in miniaturizing nuclear warheads for intercontinental ballistic missiles.

After their initial assessment that the North Korean projectile was an intermediate-range missile, the United States and South Korean authorities were continuing to analyze the data “with the possibility that it was actually an ICBM-class missile,” said Mr. Moon, the South Korean president.

If the missile took 37 minutes to fly 580 miles, as the South Korean and United States military analysts said, that would mean that it had a highly lofted trajectory, probably reaching an altitude of more than 1,700 miles, said David Wright, co-director of the Global Security Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Such a missile would have a maximum range of roughly 4,160 miles, or 6,700 kilometers, on a standard trajectory, he said.

“That range would not be enough to reach the lower 48 states or the large islands of Hawaii, but would allow it to reach all of Alaska,” Mr. Wright wrote in a blog post.

The missile looked like the longest-range missile that North Korea had ever tested, and its long flight time was “more consistent with an ICBM that can target Alaska and perhaps Hawaii,” said Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies.

>Related articles

Trump tightens the noose around Maduro with tanker blockade and threats of “unprecedented shock”

The US is offering NATO’s Article 5 security guarantees to Ukraine on one condition: to respond immediately

Moments of terror at Brown University after the shootings: Police evacuated students who had hidden

“It’s a very big deal — it looks like North Korea tested an ICBM,” he said by email. “Even if this is a 7,000-km-range missile, a 10,000-km-range missile that can hit New York isn’t far off.”

But analysts also cautioned that although they have been impressed by the rapid and steady progress in the North’s missile programs, the long flight time itself did not suggest that North Korea had mastered the complex technologies needed to build a reliable nuclear-tipped ICBM, such as the know-how to separate the nuclear warhead and guide it to its target.

Source

Ask me anything

Explore related questions

#ballistic missile#hawaii#ICBM#North Korea#nuclear test#usa
> More World

Follow en.protothema.gr on Google News and be the first to know all the news

See all the latest News from Greece and the World, the moment they happen, at en.protothema.gr

> Latest Stories

Weather: Successive bad weather from the weekend with showers and a drop in temperature

December 18, 2025

Pappas missing after beating of journalist in Strasbourg: The Famelos–Arvanitis phone calls for expulsion & Polakis’s objections

December 18, 2025

30-year-old surrenders in Kalamata over the double murder in Finikounta

December 18, 2025

The farmer’s application, EYDAP tariffs (decisions today), Zoe’s reality show, K.M. in Davos, Papachelas’s documentary

December 18, 2025

Dialogues with Konstantopoulou’s shows: Illegal video recordings, threats against spouses, and questions about the NGO

December 18, 2025

The government awaits the final decision of the blockades: Readjustment of stance in case of a definitive refusal of dialogue

December 18, 2025

A strong double-digit lead of New Democracy over PASOK is shown by the latest three polls – What they say about Tsipras and Karystianou

December 18, 2025

French farmers blockade the EU-Mercosur deal: Paris and Rome want to delay the vote

December 17, 2025
All News

> World

French farmers blockade the EU-Mercosur deal: Paris and Rome want to delay the vote

They are worried that Europe will be flooded with cheap products from South Africa without the European control framework

December 17, 2025

Britain to rejoin Erasmus from 2027

December 17, 2025

The European Parliament is in favour of the creation of a “Schengen Military Force” for a possible Russian attack

December 17, 2025

New mystery in the Bermuda Triangle: Scientists discover anomaly unlike anything else on Earth

December 17, 2025

Italy: Popular attractions that will require visitor’s entry fee

December 17, 2025
Homepage
PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION POLICY COOKIES POLICY TERM OF USE
Powered by Cloudevo
Copyright © 2025 Πρώτο Θέμα