IHS Janes:

South Korean and US sources have pointed to North Korea’s progress toward deploying its KN08 (Hwasong-13) road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

According to “multiple South Korean government sources”, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported on 14 February that North Korea had formed a “new military unit” subordinate to its Strategic Rocket Forces to field the KN08.

In his 9 February ‘Threat Assessment’ testimony, US director of national intelligence James R Clapper said, “We assess that North Korea has already taken initial steps toward fielding this system [KN08], although the system has not been flight-tested.”

The Pentagon’s latest annual North Korea Military Report, issued on 12 February, stated that “if successfully designed and developed, the KN08 likely would be capable of reaching much of the continental United States”, although the report also cautioned that ICBMs “are extremely complex systems that require multiple flight tests to identify and correct design or manufacturing defects. Without flight tests, the KN08’s current reliability as a weapon system would be low”.

In its 14 April 2012 military parade, North Korea displayed six three-stage KN08 missiles assessed to be mock-ups, but they were carried by six 16-wheel operational transporter erector launchers made by the Wanshan Special Vehicle Corporation of the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC).

In its 10 October 2015 military parade, North Korea revealed a new version of the KN08 that featured two stages and a redesigned warhead stage, similar to the multiple warhead-carrying bus of the Russian Makeyev R-29/RSM-40 submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM).

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