North Korea may be preparing to test-launch an upgraded prototype of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), South Korea has warned. In his new year’s speech the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, boasted a test launch would happen soon and state media has said a launch could come at any time. That test launch could coincide with the inauguration of Donald Trump as president on Friday, South Korean media said. A road-hauled ICBM, which could be kept hidden or moving until it was fired, would make the job of tracking and stopping a North Korean missile launch much more difficult. In 2016 North Korea conducted a test of an ICBM engine made up of a cluster of smaller rockets.

Source: The Guardian January 19, 2017 03:44 UTC