If they launch an ICBM, it will be the 11th ballistic missile test this year.
North Korea could test another intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) as early as Wednesday night, according to a U. S. official.
If the regime launches an ICBM, it will be the 11th ballistic missile test this year and the first since the nation’s historic Fourth of July ICBM test.
U. S. officials have suspected a test could occur on July 27 to mark the North Korean holiday known as “Day of Victory, ” which celebrates the end of hostilities in the Korean War in 1953.
This next test is expected to be similar to the July 4 test: a KN-20 ICBM launched from Kusong Province. The KN-20, called the Hwasong-14 by North Korea, is a two-stage variant of the KN-17 missile, launched several times by North Korea in April and May.
The July 4 missile was launched into a high-altitude trajectory of 1,730 miles and flew horizontally 577 miles for 37 minutes into the Sea of Japan.
“It is escalatory. It is destabilizing. It is also dangerous, ” said Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis, following the July 4 ICBM test. “This missile flew through busy airspace used by commercial airliners. It flew into space. It landed in Japan’s exclusive economic zone, and an area that’s used by commercial and fishing vessels. All of this completely uncoordinated.”
President Donald Trump tweeted shortly after the ICBM launch, asking if North Korea leader Kim Jong Un had “anything better to do with his life.
