The North Korean Hwasong-14/KN20 intercontinental ballistic missile fired Friday by North Korea could hit Washington D.C. or New York City, according to thediplomat.com, while other sources estimated it could hit Chicago or Denver.
The website, citing sources in the U.S. government, said based on the missile’s flight time and it’s 3,700 mile-high apogee, it showed a vast improvement from the test of the missile in early July, and could reach as far as Washington, D.C., while carrying a nuclear warhead.
Scientist David Wright of The Union of Concerned Scientists estimated the missile could fly a range of 10,400 kilometers, potentially 11,000 km. Ranges would be based on the size of the payload it was carrying.
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Anna Fifield, the Tokyo bureau chief for the Washington Post, wrote the missile could at least hit Chicago, with New York a possibility.
The Russian Ministry of Defense’s assessment was quite different. The Russians said the launch Friday was 732 km, far below the estimates of the United States, North Korea, South Korea, Japan and China.
Thediplomat.com is the website for The Diplomat Magazine, an international news publication covering politics and society in the Asia-Pacific region out of Tokyo.
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