Just one day after its latest nuclear test, North Korea seems to be preparing to launch a ballistic missile, according to a South Korean official
The military of South Korea has noticed the preparations for a North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile test.
North Korea carried its sixth nuclear test on Sunday, which was the most powerful one so far; it triggered a magnitude 6.3 tremor in the country’s northeast. More than that, it was followed by a weaker one which is believed to have been the result of a collapse in the testing site.
However, it was not immediately clear what type of missile North Korea was preparing. On July 4 it tested its new Hwasong-14 missile, and tested it again on July 28. The second one showed that the missile had a range of 6,500 miles. This means that it would put both the western and central United States within range.
The news of preparations for another missile test did not came out of nowhere. They came as a result of South Korean Defense Ministry saying that the US military aims to add four additional launchers for a missile defense system.
Due to its magnitude and size, the explosion on Sunday was believed to be caused by a hydrogen bomb. What’s clear so far is that the blast was the strongest one in North Korea’s recent tests and as much as 16 times more powerful than its previous ones.
Source: nytimes.com
