The Messages in North Korea’s Military Parade<br />Second, North Korea could "loft" the missile, firing it nearly straight up and then back down at a speed<br />that could overwhelm missile defense batteries, Mr. Lewis wrote in a blog post.<br />Think of this system, which carries a medium-range missile known as the KN-15, as more imminently threatening South Korea<br />and Japan with the sort of retaliation that North Korea is seeking with its new ICBMs.<br />While North Korea is known to have only one missile submarine, this could greatly increase the threat to South Korea and Japan.<br />It also gives North Korea two ways to potentially bypass South Korea’s new American-supplied missile defense system, the Thaad.<br />The KN-15 can only reach North Korea’s neighbors, but unlike the ICBMs has been tested in the field, making it much closer to combat-ready: This test, from February, shows how the<br />canister works, by ejecting the missile in a burst of pressurized steam, as well as how the track allows for firing from remote locations where satellites might not know to look.<br />First, though the missile defense has only a 120-degree field of view, a submarine allows North Korea to fire from virtually any direction.
