North Korea tested its longest- and highest-flying missile to date Tuesday, showing that their latest ICBM is capable of flying much farther than previously thought, analysts said, potentially reaching places as far as away as Mar-a-Lago.
If early estimates are correct, the missile flew for 54 minutes, a significantly longer missile range than the last launch, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists, adding 7 minutes of flight time on its previous test. The missile appears to have reached a peak altitude of 2,800 miles, landing in the ocean off the eastern coast of Japan, about 600 miles from where it was launched. The country had never launched a missile with a peak altitude of more than 1,700 miles before, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists.
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The statistics suggest a similar missile could hit anywhere in the continental U.S., not just the West Coast, as previously feared.
“If these numbers are correct, then if flown on a standard trajectory rather than this lofted trajectory, this missile would have a range of more than 13,000 kilometers,” or about 8,100 miles, David Wright, co-director of the Union of Concerned Scientists, wrote on Tuesday afternoon.
That’s far enough to hit the West Coast, all of the Midwest, and perhaps New York — something President Trump promised in January “won’t happen.”
Prior to this test, North Korea’s missiles displayed a maximum range of about 6,200 miles, Melissa Hanham, a senior research associate at the Middlebury Institute for International Studies, told VICE News.
Now, Hanham says, North Korea literally has Trump’s homes within range.
“That [range] would include Washington, D.C.,” Hanham said, “and even Mar-a-Lago.”