An American missile expert says that North Korea’s intercontinental ballistic missile(ICBM), if fully developed, would be able to hit the U.S. naval base in the U.S. West Coast with a nuclear warhead.
 
John Schilling, a researcher at the California-based nonprofit space research organization Aerospace Corporation, presented the analysis on Monday in his contribution to the U.S.-based North Korea monitoring Web site 38 North.
 
Schilling said that the North's Hwasong-14 ICBM could fly as far as 97-hundred kilometers to the U.S. naval base in San Diego, California with a 500-kilogram payload if fully developed. He said that the North won’t be able to immediately achieve this performance but it will master the technology eventually.
 
The expert also said that the missile has a detachable "payload shroud" that can house multiple payloads or a single warhead and a number of decoys and penetration aids designed to defeat U.S. missile defenses.
 
He said that in order to load multiple warheads in the missile, the North will need to develop the technology to reduce the weight and size of the warheads, which would be impossible within 15 years.

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