Is North Korea Getting Ready to Launch a New Missile?

Preps for even a liquid fuel tests would create a footprint that would be noticeable before and after. While polishing liquid fuel (reliability) is one possibility I think the push towards solids must be considered due to mobility and quick fire necessary for a potential nuke launch.

They already have the capacity. The Pukkuksong-1 missile is capable of striking the United States. The missile is a Submarine-launched ballistic missile. But they’ve improved upon that with the Pukkuksong-2 also known as KN-15 by intelligence outside of North Korea. It is a medium-range or intermediate-range ballistic missile under development by North Korea, which unlike some of the nation’s earlier designs, uses solid fuel. Described as ‘nuclear-capable’, its first test flight was on 12 February 2017. The state-run KCNA news agency said that leader Kim Jong-un supervised the test, which was described as a success.

Analysts have described the new missile as ‘more stable, more efficient, and harder to detect’ than North Korea’s previous liquid-fuelled design. In contrast to the older liquid-fueled rockets that take hours to prepare for launch and are easier to detect and counteract by other countries, the Pukkuksong-2 is a solid-fuel rocket that can be launched in minutes even from sub-launch.

Nothing new here.

rwood

Of course a satellite launch or "test" of a satellite launch vehicle is also a test of a potential ICBM or IRBM. The only real difference is payload. In one case you have a relatively lightweight satellite and the vehicle has enough total energy capability to boost that payload to a sufficient altitude (potential energy) and speed (kinetic energy) to remain in orbit - at least for a while. In the other case, the payload is relatively heavy, and the vehicle is only capable of placing it on a trajectory that comes back to earth before making a complete orbit.

Rocket man can throw his temper tantrum and test a launch vehicle. Maybe they'll even be testing a re-entry vehicle, flight path shaping, etc. The US and our allies will have so many systems watching the launch we'll probably learn more about their vehicle than they will.

Finally, sure, if the flight path is near enough to one of ours (or Japan's) ABM assets, we might just take a shot at it. After all, test targets are expensive! If NK is going to provide one for us...

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