North Korea's Nuclear Missile Threat to US Homeland
Newsweek has contacted the North Korean Embassy in China for comment by email.
North Korea is one of nine countries armed with nuclear weapons, possessing an estimated 50 warheads in its arsenal. In October, it test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which has a potential range of up to 9,320 miles-capable of reaching the U.S. mainland.
The U.S. has established a missile defense system known as the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) to intercept incoming North Korean ICBM nuclear warheads. The system consists of 64 interceptor silos spread across two military bases in Alaska and California.
The assessment, provided by the Defense Intelligence Agency on Tuesday, comes as the Trump administration pushes for a U.S. version of Israel's Iron Dome air defense system-referred to as the "Golden Dome"-to defend against current and future aerial threats.
The Defense Intelligence Agency said North Korea had successfully tested ballistic missiles with sufficient range to reach the entire U.S. homeland. "There is no part of the Homeland which cannot be struck by existing ICBMs," the Pentagon support agency added.
North Korea possesses "10 or fewer" ground-based ICBMs, each with a range of more than 3,417 miles and capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads, according to the assessment. However, that number is projected to increase sharply to 50 missiles by 2035.
The assessment did not project the number of North Korea's submarine-launched ballistic missiles, Hans Kristensen, a nuclear expert at the Federation of American Scientists, wrote on social media. In 2023, North Korea launched a submarine with the potential to fire nuclear-armed missiles.
The projected increase in North Korean ICBMs poses a challenge to the GMD. The missile defense system has an "optimal engagement mode" of four interceptors per ICBM warhead, according to Ankit Panda, a Carnegie Endowment for International Peace nuclear analyst.
In a congressional testimony in 2021, the analyst described North Korea's path to saturating the entire GMD as "eminently achievable." While the system could fire fewer interceptors at each incoming ICBM warhead, doing so would reduce its overall expected effectiveness.
Fort Greely, which hosts the GMD interceptor silos in Alaska, conducted a simulated ICBM attack on the U.S. during Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll's visit in April. The secretary received a briefing on the GMD missile crew tactics, techniques and procedures.
The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency said in a news release on Tuesday: "In the coming decade, missile threats to the U.S. Homeland from more advanced conventional- and nuclear-capable delivery systems will expand in scale and sophistication."
Hans Kristensen, the director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, wrote on Bluesky on Wednesday: "Despite showing projected increases, many of the weapon types shown are not entirely new but are capabilities that the countries have had for many years, even decades."
U.S. President Donald Trump said in an executive order issued in January: "The threat of attack by ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missiles, and other advanced aerial attacks, remains the most catastrophic threat facing the United States."
It remains to be seen whether the U.S. will build additional interceptor silos to cope with the evolving ICBM threat from North Korea, which has vowed not to give up its nuclear arsenal.
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