North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un's sister, Kim Yo Jong, sends scary warnings over criticisms of the country's latest intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
The country's officials announced that they were ready to test-fire one of the ICBMs at a normal trajectory as it is a flight pattern that could prove that the armaments can threaten the continental United States.
Kim Yo Jong's Threats
Kim Yo Jong's remarks also dismissed experts' skepticism regarding North Korea's ICBM technology progress, particularly the re-entry capability of its weapons. ICBMs are weapons sent into space, where they cruise outside the Earth's atmosphere before their payloads, which are nuclear warheads, undergo a fiery re-entry process to strike their targets.
Suppose this process is not conducted with pinpoint accuracy and using materials capable of withstanding the immense heat generated upon re-entry. In that case, the warhead will burn up before reaching its intended target. Furthermore, the angle at which the warhead re-enters our planet's atmosphere can make the process even more difficult, as per CNN.
Until now, North Korea has fired ballistic missiles that traveled hundreds of miles into space before re-entering Earth's atmosphere at steep angles, most of which fell into waters between it and Japan.
If North Korean authorities plan to target the mainland U.S. with ICBMs, a missile must take a much shallower flight path and a shallower re-entry angle. Kim Yo Jong said that for several years, so-called experts have been criticizing that their ICBMs' re-entries have not been recognized or verified.
According to the Associated Press, amid Kim Yo Jong's threats, the United States on Tuesday flew nuclear-capable bombers and advanced stealth jets in a show of force against North Korea. The fleet of aircraft included the U.S. B-52 bombers and the F-22 stealth fighter jets that conducted joint drills with South Korean warplanes.
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Global Tensions
The flight was part of an agreement to protect South Korea with all available means, including nuclear weapons, said South Korea's Defense Ministry. The drills also included other aircraft, such as the F-35 and F-15 fighter jets from South Korea, and took place over the waters found southwest of Jeju island.
It was also the first time in the last four years that the U.S. F-22 jets were deployed in South Korea, where they will stay for this week for training with South Korean forces. The two nations conducted the drills following North Korea's claim to have successfully launched a test satellite to develop its first military spy satellite.
This year, North Korea has fired a record number of missiles meant as a warning over previous U.S.-South Korea military drills that were viewed as rehearsals of an invasion. These caused concerns that the North could react to the latest aerial training by the allies with a new round of missile tests.
On the other hand, North Korean officials condemned a Japanese military buildup outlined in a new security strategy. They called it dangerous and vowed counteractions while also sending warnings of another imminent test of an ICBM, Reuters reported.
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