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FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
BEIJING – Kim Jong-un will never cease to amaze us. This year they gave him several times for dead or in a vegetative coma. On Saturday, the North Korean marshal gave another taste of being alive and thinking. He organized a large parade and after the usual goose-step departments, tanks and the new horse regiment of his personal Guard, he paraded two huge 11-axle vehicles carrying colossal intercontinental missiles never seen before. Analysts claim that they are the largest transportable missiles in the world’s arsenal: 26 meters long; 2.9 in diameter, two stages. Estimated weight 120 tons, plus another 100 tons of liquid propellant, plus the weight of the TEL vehicle (transport, lift and launch).
A traveling time bomb. It is imagined that the monster is designed to be armed with multiple nuclear warheads. Why has Kim, under sanctions, dedicated so many financial resources to a single gigantic project, considering that he already tried it in 2017 with the Hwasong-15 single warhead ICBMs in order to threaten US cities and bases? According to military analysts, Kim wants to challenge the US missile defense system deployed in Alaska.
If each of the giant ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles) seen on parade in Pyongyang carried three or four nuclear warheads, the Americans would have to keep between 12 and 16 interceptors ready to neutralize it, maintaining a safety report of 4 interceptors for each incoming warhead. Would mean spending $ 1 billion to counter a single giant Kim missile.
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Kim flaunts his guns in a rare pre-dawn parade
However, the 11-axle vehicle carrying the giant is not easy to move: reinforced roads are needed to support its weight; therefore, it cannot be hidden in the field; it takes time to prepare it for launch with 100 tons of liquid propellant and during the operation it could be identified and neutralized with preventive strikes. It seems crazy to build such a difficult-to-move mobile missile; but it makes sense in a threatening equation that means for the United States: We have this new device, we must be afraid of it, say the specialists.
If North Korea built a dozen of these missiles, the Americans would have to spend $ 10 billion on interceptors. The Pentagon should redo its budget. Bottom line: North Korea is suffering from international sanctions and wants the American taxpayer to pay too, creating a new problem for the president of the United States, whoever he is after the November elections. But Kim has not yet ordered to test the new missile monster in flight: so perhaps he always hopes to resume negotiations. (of course dictating the conditions).
October 12, 2020 (change October 12, 2020 | 14:40)
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