The US could be forced to intercept a North Korean missile over Russian airspace if Kim Jong-un’s regime attempts to strike its arch-foe.
Any missile fired at the US by the totalitarian dictatorship would most likely fly over the North Pole and may even have to be destroyed over Russia itself.
General Lori Robinson, the head of the US Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (or NORAD), said it was something she is ‘aware of’.
In July the regime tested a Hwasong-14 (pictured), which is believed to be an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of flying 6,200 miles and striking the United States
North Korea has dramatically upped its testing of long-range missiles under dictator Kim Jong-un (pictured)
She added, as reported in Defense One: ‘It’s something we work our way through.
‘What you have to do is sit down and go, okay, what is the azimuth.
‘When would be the right time to take the best shot to defend? That’s about all I’ll say.’
North Korea has dramatically upped its testing of long-range missiles under dictator Kim Jong-un.
In July the regime tested a Hwasong-14, which is believed to be an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of flying 6,200 miles and striking the United States.
The Stalinist autocracy is also developing nuclear weapons and plans to attach a miniaturized warhead to its long-range missiles.
But to stop a potential catastrophe, the US is planning to have 44 GBIs (ground-based interceptors) by the end of 2017.
They would serve as a last line of defense from bases in California and Alaska.
But Joshua Pollack – a researcher at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies – recently told the Air Force Association the most likely point of interception would be ‘above the Russian Far East.’
General Lori Robinson (left), the head of the US Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (or NORAD), said she is ‘aware of’ the possibility North Korea could fire a missile over Russian airspace. Pictured right: A ground-based interceptor at Fort Greely, Alaska
He added, simply: ‘Yikes.’
But General Robinson was nonetheless optimistic.
‘I am entirely confident in our ability to defend the United States,’ she told the National Defense Industrial Association’s Women in Defense event on Wednesday.
She also warned about North Korea’s increased ‘capability and capacity’, which she called ‘amazing’.
She added, according to National Defense magazine: ‘If we see that he’s tested over 30 per cent more than his father and grandfather combined, and if we look at the speed … that he does the testing, and he’s not afraid to fail in public, we should worry and I know we are.’