Kim Jong Un’s Latest Missile Test Officially Puts America ‘At Risk’
North Korea’s test Thursday of its newest, strongest intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) has exposed the weakness of U.S. defense against the North’s growing ability to explode a warhead anywhere in America.
By test-firing a Hwasong 17 from a site dangerously close to Pyongyang, the North challenged the U.S. to fire back with more than just diplomatic verbiage and act quickly on figuring out ways to shoot down missiles that could land anywhere on U.S. soil.
“A multiple warhead ICBM risks overwhelming the limited number of missile interceptors deployed in Alaska and California,” said Bruce Klingner, a former CIA analyst with the Heritage Foundation in Washington. The impact, he told The Daily Beast, is “putting the American homeland at risk, overwhelming the limited number of missile interceptors deployed in Alaska and California.”