North Korea is preparing to launch another intermediate-range ballistic missile in the next 24 to 72 hours, two U.S. officials with knowledge of the latest intelligence assessment tell Fox News.The pre-Election Day launch of the Musudan missile would be the ninth test launch this year, in addition to two nuclear tests by the communist nation in defiance of United Nations sanctions.
Neither official would specify what the latest satellite imagery showed indicating a launch was days away. The U.S. military is concerned that the Musudan can be launched from concealable road-mobile launchers, typically from highways or mountainous areas. North Korean officials have long expressed a desire to build a nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile to strike the United States.
North Korea has shown a propensity to conduct missile launches around major events in the United States. In early February, Superbowl Sunday in the United States, North Korea launched a satellite into space. One of the Musudan launches came before the final presidential debate and while top South Korean leaders visited Washington earlier this month.
In March, the U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution condemning a January nuclear test as well the long range launch putting the satellite in space. Resolution 2270 calls on North Korea not conduct further tests and immediately suspend all activities related to its ballistic missile program.
On Monday, for the first time in 28 years, a U.S. Navy ballistic missile submarine visited the U.S. island territory of Guam in the western Pacific, according to Navy officials. USS Pennsylvania, the American submarine which made the call to Guam, can carry 24 Trident D-5 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) with a range of nearly 7,500 miles.
Last week, the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said the goal of persuading North Korea to abandon its pursuit of nuclear weapons is probably a "lost cause."
| Thanks in part to DNI Clapper... |
South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se warned that North Korea was “nearing the final stage of nuclear weaponization” and called the threat “grave.”
At a Pentagon press conference alongside his American counterpart hours after the North Korean launch, South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-koo, speaking through an interpreter, said there was a “high possibility” North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un was present for the launch. Han said his country would keep up “psy-ops” or psychological operations to expose North Korea to the outside world.
Recent satellite photos first reported by the Washington Post last week allege the two recent missile launches on Oct. 15 and Oct. 20 may, in fact, be long range KN-08 missiles and not Musudan intermediate-range missiles.
Despite a number of spectacular failures beginning in April, North Korea conducted a Musudan launch last summer that was deemed partially successful. The U.S. military’s Strategic Command said a June lunch resulted in a Musudan traveling nearly 250 miles into the Sea of Japan. When fully operational, a Musudan can travel up to 2,500 miles, well within range of U.S. forces stationed in Japan and Guam, according to officials.