North Korea Missile Could Reach NYC, Scientist Says

NEW YORK, NY — North Korea's missile launch on Tuesday was the country's longest yet — and could have hit New York City, a missile expert says.

The missile reportedly flew for about 54 minutes, getting as high as 4,500 kilometers, or nearly 2,800 miles, before touching down in the sea of Japan. The missile was launched early Wednesday morning North Korea's local time.

That height indicates the missile could have flown as far as 8,100 miles if it was on a "standard trajectory" rather than a "lofted" path, Wright, a physicist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, wrote in a blog post Tuesday. That's a longer range than North Korea's past long-range missile tests.

"Such a missile would have more than enough range to reach Washington, D.C., and in fact any part of the continental United States," Wright wrote, though he added it probably couldn't travel as far if it was carrying an actual nuclear warhead.

It's uncertain what the test missile was carrying, but Wright says it was probably a light "mock warhead."

North Korea launched another long-range missile in August that experts said also could have struck New York, according to Newsweek. President Donald Trump is concerned — he tweeted that he and Chinese president Xi Jinping will impose "additional major sanctions" on North Korea after Tuesday's missile test.

Curious about North Korea's missile? Learn more by reading Wright's full blog post. And make sure you're prepped for a nuclear disaster by reading Patch's guide to what to do if we get nuked.

Also See: US Strongly Condemns North Korean Missile Launch

(Lead image: People watch a television broadcast, reporting North Korea's test-launch of its new ICBM, at the Seoul Railway Station in South Korea on Wednesday. Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)