North Korea may be building an ICBM that can reach Washington

North Korea is believed to be developing a new missile that could strike the entire US mainland, including New York and Washington.

A diagram of the Hwasong-13 missile appears in a photo released by North Korean media on August 23. Photo: KCNA.

By publicly releasing images of a new missile design, North Korea has sent a message that Pyongyang is developing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) more powerful than any it has ever tested, Reuters reported today.

North Korean state media on August 23 released photos of leader Kim Jong-un standing next to a diagram of the Hwasong-13 three-stage missile. After carefully examining the images, missile experts assessed that if successfully developed, this missile could reach any place in the US territory, including Washington and New York.However, there is currently no evidence that it is complete. Because it has not been test-fired, the West cannot calculate the missile's range.

According to experts, the three-stage missile will be more powerful than the two-stage Hwasong-14 ICBM that North Korea tested twice in July. US and South Korean authorities and experts said the Hwasong-14 could have a range of about 10,000 km and be capable of attacking many areas of the US, but could not reach the East Coast.

Meanwhile, a missile with a range of more than 11,000 km could hit both Washington and New York if launched from anywhere in North Korea.

"We should consider the Hwasong-13 as an ICBM with a range of 12,000 km and capable of attacking the entire US," Kim Dong-yub, a military expert at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies in Seoul, emphasized.

According to VNE