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North Korea is just getting started on a fleet of more powerful nukes

North Korea is just getting started on a fleet of more powerful nukes

North Korea seems sick and tired of the US and international community doubting its nuclear and missile technology, so they put out images to shut up the doubters.

This is a huge block of reinforced carbon, and Herbert thinks North Korea may be trying to say "we have as much of this stuff as we need."

Back to the diagrams, Herbert says that although North Korean propaganda is skewed and overly optimistic, "the numbers feel right."

The diagrams "appear to be the numbers describing the conditions of reentry" including "how much pressure and heating as its coming back into the atmosphere."

Basically, North Korea just showed off a wide range of different components for extremely deadly and effective nuclear ballistic missiles, and they all look about right.

Here's Kim with that funny grey block, which is actually a vital component necessary to delivering a nuclear warhead.

Herbert said this block is "essentially reinforced carbon carbon" which is a super heat and pressure-resistant material used for the nose of the warhead.

When a ballistic missile fires, the rocket engines blast it into space, but only the reentry vehicle, which holds the warhead, remains. To get through the earth's atmosphere at many times the speed of sound, North Korea needs advanced materials like reinforced carbon carbon.

North Korea may have shared these images in responses to stories that its reentry vehicle failed in previous tests.

Here's the Hwasong-13 on parade in North Korea.

The missile has never been successfully tested, but the images from North Korea's missile plant shows its serious about sticking with this program.

If North Korea gets this missile working, it will be an even more powerful ICBM that can send a heavier payload deeper into the US.

But the Pukguksong-3 wasn't the only missile revealed in the images. North Korea is also planning an update to the KN-08 or Hwasong-13, a ballistic missile with an even further range than its current ICBM.

Herbert said North Korea is in the process of updating the Hwasong-13, a massive ICBM that can carry a huge payload all the way to New York City from North Korea.

However, the material upgrade to the Hwasong-13 amount to "incremental improvements," according to Herbert. New materials could make the missile a "little bit lighter and more efficient," but "with the HS-13, it doesn’t really change a whole lot," according to Herbert.

Also, solid fueled missiles could turn some of North Korea's 60 submarines into nuclear threats.

Herbert identified the solid fueled, kevlar-wrapped missile that North Korea showed off as the Pukgukgsong-3, or the third version of North Korea's submarine-launched missiles.

A nuclear-armed North Korea is scary, but if North Korea could arm even a few of its 60 or so submarines with nuclear missiles, even with the US's massive advantage in submarines and submarine hunting, it would present a likely unsolvable puzzle for the US military.

Additionally, missiles launched from submarines don't need to have ICBM ranges, as they can get close to a target. Regardless, Herbert said the new materials would probably boost the range of the missiles by 30 or 40 percent.

North Korea appears on the verge of making solid-fueled missiles, which would be a major breakthrough and a nightmare for the US to stop.

But the design of the motor also indicates that it will use solid fuel, which would be a nightmare for the US. Liquid-fueled rockets require huge teams to fuel the missile and prepare it for launch.

The process on large missiles can take a half hour and requires a long convoy of trucks. This makes the process easy to spot and potentially disrupt for the US military. Solid fueled rockets based on trucks can just park and fire in minutes. The US has no chance of stopping such a launch from a remote place in North Korea.

"The most advaned solid rocket motors use advanced carbon fibre and kevlar," said Herbert, indicating that North Korean missiles could soon approach the effectiveness of advanced US or Russian missiles.

North Korea's new missiles will be advanced and lightweight, and Kim wants you to know that.

Herbert told Business Insider that North Korea appears to have made leaps and bounds in its application of composite materials to its missile program.

Instead of heavy sheets of aluminum, North Korea now looks ready to use kevlar and carbon fibre materials to drastically reduce the weight of the missiles, and thereby the range or payload.

"The significance [of the advanced materials] is that those casings weigh about half as much. Either you can carry a bigger payload or you can go further," said Herbert.