Is a “Full-Range” ICBM Test Coming Soon from North Korea?

North Korea’s weapons systems have developed in important ways since 2017. A spate of missile tests have involved submarine-launched ballistic missiles and short-range ballistic missiles. Of special interest to the United States and the international system, though, are tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles with ranges sufficient to reach all or most of America with a nuclear weapon.

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These tests demonstrate missiles with vastly increased accuracy, enhanced abilities to evade U.S. and allied defenses, and a diversity of systems that give North Korea important options during wartime.

Russian Help

North Korea’s testing of advanced systems in recent years means we are now looking at a new paradigm. Several of the systems the North Koreans now have and are working to incorporate into their military are either coming from the Russians or being built with the assistance of Russian companies. 

A good example of this is a missile system we have seen the North Koreans test several times that looks remarkably like Russia’s Iskander system. In recent years, the United States has sanctioned Russian companies several times for assisting North Korean missile development. This is new. Even during the Cold War, North Korea had to look elsewhere for ballistic missile development. (It did sometimes get old systems from former Soviet client states.) But that has changed, and the threat North Korea is able to pose to South Korea and the United States is now exacerbated by Russian assistance.

How capable are the new ICBM systems we have seen tested? The Hwasong-14 and Hwasong-15 have actually proven to be reliable in the few tests that have been conducted. Both systems can hit the United States, with the Hwasong-15 being able to travel the farthest and carry the heaviest