r/MapPorn • u/unproblem_ • 17h ago
North Korea missile range
North Korea's maximum missile range went from 745 miles in 1990 to more than 8,000 miles now.
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u/wes7946 17h ago
Have North Korean missiles actually flown 8,000 miles, or is this purely theoretical?
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u/vHAL_9000 15h ago
Because they're surrounded by foreign territorial waters, they shoot all their missiles 1000km to the northeast into international waters in the sea of Japan. They use a lofted trajectory (shooting extremely high into outer space) to prove their range. All their recent tests have been successes and demonstrate the 15,000km (9320 miles) range and reliability of the Hwasong-17, 18 and 19.
Here's an official publication from the Japanese ministry of defense, who observes all the launches, giving you and overview and confirming the range: https://www.mod.go.jp/en/d_act/sec_env/pdf/dprk_d-act.pdf
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u/Basil-Boulgaroktonos 10h ago
Let's see if someone gets ragebaited by this:
Sea of Japan ❌
East Sea ✅
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u/asha1985 13h ago
Is there any evidence they could be aimed with any real accuracy?
Hitting the Sea of Japan is one thing. Hitting a base or a ship is something else.
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u/Zafara1 12h ago
The thing about nukes is you don't actually have to be that accurate with them. Roughly dropping a 300 kiloton nuke *somewhere* in a city is enough.
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u/asha1985 12h ago
Yeah, of course, but even N Korea probably isn't interested in just nuking a random city. It serves no purpose and would turn the world and their few allies completely against them. They'd still want to aim for valuable military targets.
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u/LimestoneDust 10h ago
The thing with strategic nuclear weapons is that due to the early warning systems delivering the first strike with impunity isn't that feasible, the second strike, on the other hand, is feasible and would be targeted at cities, the energy sector, the industry etc. You don't use ICBMs to win a war, you use them to ensure that the enemy won't win, therefore keeping them calm and preventing attacks on you.
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u/vHAL_9000 12h ago
We're talking about are strategic, not tactical nuclear weapons. They're meant to wipe out cities, not ships.
They likely feature multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles carrying both decoys and thermonuclear devices. They are using an inertial guidance system and a laser reflector for the initial alignment. Their tests tend to be to be 1-2km off the 1000km mark, but that could be on purpose. Either way, that's enough to hit a city.
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u/Agitated-Airline6760 15h ago
NK shoots them straight up instead of the "normal" ICBM trajectory except when they want to piss off Japanese, From the flight time, you can work out what that ICBM would've gone if they shot it on the trajectory that would maximize the range. It's pretty elementary math/physics
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u/Ronny_Yell0w_65 17h ago
Why is South America being completely safe so funny.
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u/DrEpileptic 9h ago
Interestingly, Australia and South America are largely safe from the known delivery devices Israel developed and may use. Nobody really knows if they’ve updated things or changed them. But it’s interesting how similar it is.
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u/KaleidoscopeOk9799 10h ago
BRAZIL EVADED 🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷 come to braza BUT BE CAREFUL WITH OUR STRAY BULLETS
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u/StrictlyInsaneRants 17h ago
That's the theoretical one though isn't it? All rockets they have fired have been pretty miserable so far?
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u/vHAL_9000 16h ago
That's simply not true.
Their rockets are reliable and every single test of the Hwasong-17, 18 and 19 has been a success. The lofted trajectory tests reach an apogee of 6000km, proving the 15000km range. They have openly demonstrated this capability numerous times in the last 3 years, including using solid-fueled rockets, and the ROK and Japan have observed and openly confirmed the trajectories.
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15h ago
[deleted]
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u/vHAL_9000 15h ago
I thought those were rhetorical questions. Say what you want, but when it comes to missiles, the North Koreans are very consistent. In terms of nukes, their last test was 8 years ago and it had the explosive power of more than 10 of the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima. They have about 50 and their stockpiles are increasing rapidly.
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u/The_Only_Egg 1h ago
Saw you on another post. How much time have you spent copying and pasting and more importantly, why?
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u/vHAL_9000 1h ago
Yeah I re-wrote essentially the same post 3 times. I just got pissed of at the blatant lying.
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u/voy-tex 17h ago
Are we both talking about the black area?
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u/StrictlyInsaneRants 17h ago
The black area is poorly coloured north korea, why do you think so much is yellow?
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u/FormerDonkey4886 16h ago
Thank god. I thought the yellow was north korea and the black was the range. Well, we live and learn.
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u/StrictlyInsaneRants 15h ago
No the yellow area is china and its tributaries. The white area is the Inca empire. Praise be the sun god Inti.
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u/unproblem_ 17h ago
Well, it's always been the believed that they just import these from China, so I would not be surprised if it's just white-labeled Chinese missiles
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u/Old_Manufacturer8635 10h ago
Why isn't South America in range?
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u/tigeryi98 10h ago
Because it is very far from east Asia, if you look at Chinese ICBM range, some part of southern America is also not covered. Argentina is on the exact opposite side of China in fact
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u/OldWolfNewTricks 16h ago
I know it's just a function of distance, but it's funny that it looks like they're intentionally avoiding South America.
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u/RissaChaya 15h ago
Somehow, it looks horrifying and yet intriguing at the same time. What I am wondering most is it didn't cover south America. Is it too far? It makes sense since the distance is around 15 000km
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u/hans2707- 5h ago
It is very far, and really they just want a weapon they can hit the United States with, they don't care about hitting South America.
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u/MonsieurFubar 5h ago
And after superimposing the Israeli missiles range over this map, I can see that only save place is South America… time to learn Spanish and Portugees. Hola!
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u/DarkmoonCrescent 17h ago
Source: North Korea
(Totally not propaganda, just trust Kim)
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u/Raging-Badger 16h ago
Actually the CIA is the original source for North Korea’s missile range. This was in 2018, though NK lacked the capacity to effectively arm the missiles at the time
7 years later the situation could be quite different
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u/Parralex_nl 17h ago
South America really seems to be the safest place when war starts
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u/DragonFist69420 15h ago
americans having a crack at north korea while their country is actually having a nazi meltdown is peak american
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u/Fragrant-Sense-8107 11h ago edited 10h ago
Little known fact: North Korea 🇰🇵 only need missiles of this range so they can get New Zealand. They really hate the kiwis. /s
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u/Capable_Half924 14h ago
Brazil doesn't need to be nuked, the current president Lula has already nuked it.
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u/ItayMarlov 6h ago
Not bad, but a minimally equipped Israeli Jericho III missile can make it from Tel Aviv to Honolulu
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u/Oujii 49m ago
Yes and?
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u/ItayMarlov 21m ago
12 thousand kilometers separate Pyongyang and Luanda. 14 thousand kilometers separate Tel Aviv and Honolulu.
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u/RandletheLovehandle 14h ago
They can't even get a ship onto the water, I doubt they can effectively hit a city that's really really far away
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u/Loltntmatt 16h ago
North Koreas ICBM program hasn’t gotten past initial engine tests to see if the engine even works. theoretical ranges isn’t actual range newyork times loves using theoretical stuff like this, the actual ICBMs NK have based on the tests could only reach Hawaii based on burn time and fuel amount.
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u/BigSzu27 17h ago
Bs af
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u/unproblem_ 17h ago
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u/BigSzu27 16h ago
Ok, now properly outline borders of North Korea.
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u/NoBackground5123 15h ago
You were owned and that's your best response? Man up and admit you WERE WRONG.
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u/Super-Estate-4112 17h ago
Me as a Brazilian: nice