North Korea may be poised to move ICBMs into production, US says

WASHINGTON – North Korea may be poised to move into production its intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of reaching the US, the Pentagon’s commander of continental defences told a Senate panel.

Mr Kim Jong Un’s regime “probably can deliver a nuclear payload to targets throughout North America while minimising our ability to provide pre-launch warning due to the shortened launch preparation timelines afforded by its solid-propellant design”, Air Force General Gregory Guillot, the head of US Northern Command, said in written testimony on Feb 13 to the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Gen Guillot cited the October 2024

test launch of the solid-fuel Hwasong-19 ICBM

, which can be deployed and prepared for launch faster than a missile with liquid propellant.

Rhetoric about the new ICBM by North Korea “suggests Kim is eager to transition his strategic weapons programme from research and development to serial production and fielding, a process that could rapidly expand North Korea’s inventory” while narrowing Gen Guillot’s confidence in his command’s capacity to defend against ballistic missiles, the general said.

When pressed at a Brookings Institution event in November whether the Hwasong-19 test indicated that North Korea could pair a nuclear warhead with an ICBM that could withstand the rigours of launch, flight and descent through the atmosphere, Admiral Samuel Paparo, head of US Indo-Pacific Command, said “we’ve not yet seen that capability, but we just see continued testing towards that”.

Gen Guillot’s comments will likely bolster arguments by missile defence advocates to bankroll US President Donald Trump’s pledge to

create an all-encompassing “Iron Dome” umbrella

to protect the US from attack.

Mr Trump issued an executive order in January to accelerate production and delivery of new systems to track and intercept incoming missiles, as well as defeat them before launch.

The Pentagon is currently working to flesh out details to include in the fiscal 2026 defence budget request.

The US has developed and fielded a fleet of more than 40 ground-based interceptors at Fort Greely in Alaska and Vandenberg Space Force Base in California to defend primarily against a limited attack by North Korea. BLOOMBERG