North Korea's New Missile Is Massive, Comes With Mobile Launcher

WASHINGTON, DC — North Korea unveiled dozens of pictures on Thursday of a new intercontinental ballistic missile that it says can travel to anywhere in the continental U.S. Experts generally concluded that the missile, dubbed the Hwasong-15, is bigger, more advanced and comes with a mobile launcher that will make it more difficult to pre-emptively destroy.

But they also said the missile might not be able to travel much farther than the West Coast due to the heaviness if an actual nuclear warhead, unlike the dummy it carried in its test launch on Wednesday.

Here's a closer look:

THE MISSILE

The new missile seems to be much bigger than the Hwasong-14 ICBM that North Korea tested twice in July. The new missile is much larger than Kim Jong Un, who stands about 5 feet 7 inches tall.

Michael Duitsman, a researcher at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, California, tweeted: "This is very big missile ... And I don't mean 'Big for North Korea.' Only a few countries can produce missiles of this size, and North Korea just joined the club." Size is important because a missile targeting the United States would have to carry a lot of fuel. Duitsman also suggested the new ICBM appears to have a different engine arrangement and improved steering.

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THE LAUNCHER

North Korea boasted repeatedly in its announcement of the launch Wednesday that the Hwasong-15 was fired from a domestically made erector-launcher vehicle. Its photos back that up. Being able to make its own mobile launch vehicles, called TELs, frees the North from the need to get them from other countries, like China, which is crucial considering the tightening of international sanctions that North Korea faces. TELs make it easier to move missiles around and launch them from remote, hard-to-predict locations. That makes finding and destroying the Hwasong-15 before a launch more difficult.

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THE PAYLOAD

North Korea claims the Hwasong-15 can carry a "super-heavy" nuclear payload to any target in the mainland United States. The re-entry vehicle, that nose cone in the photo, does indeed look quite large. But the heavier the load the shorter the range. Michael Elleman, a leading missile expert, has suggested in the respected 38 North blog that Hwasong-15's estimated 8,100-mile range assumes a payload of around 330 pounds, which is probably much lighter than any real nuclear payload the North can produce. To get to the West Coast, the North needs to keep that weight down to 1,100 pounds. Whether it can do that remains questionable.

"Kim Jong Un's nuclear bomb must weigh less than 350 kilograms (800 pounds) if he expects to strike the western edges of the U.S. mainland," Elleman estimated. "A 600-kilogram (1,300-pound) payload barely reaches Seattle."

Watch: North Korea TV Shows Ballistic Missile Launch Video

By ERIC TALMADGE, Associated Press

Photo: People watch a television screen showing a breaking news on North Korea's long-range rocket launch at Seoul Station on February 7, 2016 in Seoul, South Korea. North Korea launched a long-range rocket carrying a satellite on February 7, 2016. The launch is considered by Western experts as part of a program to develop intercontinental ballistic missile technologies, banned by the multiple of past resolutions of the U. N. Security Council against the country. South Korea, the United States and Japan have requested an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council. (Photo by Han Myung-Gu/Getty Images)