U.S. and North Korea launched missiles at the same time—what they have and why they should stop
North Korea and the United States each tested missiles minutes apart from one another Thursday. The two launches came at a time when tensions between the longtime foes—which had recently begun to cool down—threatened to heat up again.
"By testing ballistic missiles this month, both the U.S. and North Korea risk blowing up the delicate progress that has been achieved to date through diplomacy," Rick Wayman, deputy director of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, told Newsweek. In both cases, the U.S. fired an unarmed, yet nuclear-capable LGM-30G Minuteman III, the only operational weapon serving as the ground-based third of the nuclear triad that comprises land, air and sea assets. Just hours later, the U.S. demonstrated the naval third of its strategic power when Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine USS Rhode Island fired an unarmed Trident II D5 off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida.
People watch a TV news program showing file footage of North Korea’s projectile weapons, at a railway station in Seoul, South Korea, May 9. JUNG YEON-JE/AFP/Getty Images While it remained to be seen whether or not North Korea possessed the technology to fit nuclear warheads on such weapons, even conventional strikes could do major damage. Kim's armed forces possessed a variety of medium-range, short-range, submarine-launched and surface-to-air missiles that could potentially threaten South Korea and Japan, along with the tens of thousands of U.S. forces based in both countries.
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