Can North Korea Really Strike Hawaii?
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Taepondong-1
Regardless of the public declarations by Defense Secretary Robert Gates that the Obama administration will bolster defenses to protect Hawaii from a possible North Korean missile launch on July 4, the United States has nothing to worry about. North Korea has more than a thousand missiles in its military arsenal, but none of them can travel the distance required to strike Hawaii. It is 4,500 miles from Pyongyang to Honolulu, and North Korea’s “best” missile (Taepondong-2) can travel 3,700 miles. That’s assuming it doesn’t blow up again. Twice, North Korea has unsuccessfully tried to launch its Taepondong-2, only to be disappointed.
Even if the impoverished, saber-rattling regime manages to develop a missile capable of flying across the Pacific without falling apart, it has not yet demonstrated any technical capability to put a nuclear warhead on a long-range missile, experts say.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Pearl Harbor, Part II? (by John Feffer, Foreign Policy in Focus)
FACTBOX-North Korea's Missile Arsenal (Reuters)
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