© 2024 Hawaiʻi Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Talk Shows:Listen again to your favorite talk programs on HPR-2!Local News:News features and series from HPR's award winning news departmentHPR-2 Program Schedule:find out when all your favorite programs are on the air on HPR-2! Or you can find out more from the HPR-2 detailed program listings.

Pacific News Minute: Korean Missile Testing

Expert Infantry / Flickr
Expert Infantry / Flickr

Over the past few weeks, North Korea claimed it test-fired a missile from a submarine, and a senior American officer said North Korean missiles are now able to strike the west coast of the United States with nuclear weapons. Then, last week, South Korea tried out a new missile of its own. Details from Neal Conan in today's Pacific News Minute.

Officially, South Korea said little about the new missile, except that it's capable of reaching any part of the North. Unofficially, South Korean news reports credit the Hyundai-Moo 2b with a range of about 310 miles, and a payload of 2,200 pounds. The distance is important...far enough to hit North Korean targets, but not far enough to threaten China or Russia.

When they're deployed, beginning later this year, the new South Korean missiles will carry conventional explosives. According to Admiral William Gortney, commander of NORAD, North Korea now has the ability to put miniaturized nuclear warheads on a mobile missile called the KN-08. That missile is theoretically able to hit the U.S. West coast, though there's no evidence it's been tested, and many experts doubt that North Korea can yet make a nuclear warhead small enough to fit. A mobile launcher makes it much more difficult to intercept, but Admiral Gortney told reporters that if one got airborne, "I'm confident we'll be able to knock it down."

Last month, North Korea released pictures of leader Kim Jong Un exulting as a submarine launched missile blasted out of the water, but independent analysis suggests the pictures were manipulated for propaganda. The missile took off from a barge, experts say, not a submarine, and it may be five years before the North can deploy ballistic missile submarines.

Over 36 years with National Public Radio, Neal Conan worked as a correspondent based in New York, Washington, and London; covered wars in the Middle East and Northern Ireland; Olympic Games in Lake Placid and Sarajevo; and a presidential impeachment. He served, at various times, as editor, producer, and executive producer of All Things Considered and may be best known as the long-time host of Talk of the Nation. Now a macadamia nut farmer on Hawaiʻi Island, his "Pacific News Minute" can be heard on HPR Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.
Related Stories