The US wants its THAAD missile system in Asia because of this mobile North Korean weapon

North Korea continues to develop a mobile intercontinental ballistic missile that “would likely be capable of reaching much of the continental United States,” the Pentagon said in a new report to Congress on the secretive regime’s military capabilities.

The KN-08 missile would have an estimated range of more than 5,500 kilometres, and North Korea already has six “road-mobile” launchers for it, according to the annual report delivered to congressional committees. A mobile missile can be harder to track than a silo-based weapon, although the threat from the KN-08 depends on whether it’s “successfully designed and developed,” the Defence Department cautioned.

The new report on Friday, reaffirming a judgement about the KN-08 made by the Pentagon in 2013, arrives amid rising tensions after North Korea conducted a nuclear test on January 6 and launched a long-range rocket on February 7. South Korea and the US have said they will begin talks about deploying an American ballistic missile interceptor system known as Thaad (Terminal High Altitude Area Defence) on the Korean peninsula, a move that has unnerved both China and Russia.

Russia has warned of a new arms race in Asia. On Friday China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that Beijing was urging the United States not to deploy Thaad to South Korea, saying it could also be used to target China.