WORLD WAR 3: North Korea’s SPACE WEAPON even more deadly than a nuclear missile

But some experts now suggest the totalitarian madman may not be targeting a city but a nuclear explosion IN SPACE which would spread deadly radioactive fallout across a vast area.

International experts fear the brutal dictator is trying to develop a nuclear ICBM capable of reaching the US and have pointed to the development of a series of man-made islands which have appeared in the Yellow Sea which are equipped with military facilities.

But data leaking out of Pyongyang now suggests Kim Jong-un will get around the huge technical difficulties of making a missile land on a prescribed target thousands of miles away by perfecting a ‘space burst’.

An orbital burst over the USA would not only knock out millions of electronic items such as phones and computers because of the nuke’s electromagnetic pulse but kill millions from radiation poisoning as the fall out fell to earth.

North Korea launched its first pilot communications satellite, Kwangmyongsong-1, as far bask as  August 1998. In February 2016, with the successful entry into orbit of Kwangmyongsong-4, Kim Jong-un boasted the country “entered the practical satellite developing stage.”

And just this week, ironically as US spy satellite pictures circulated,  North Korea’s deputy UN ambassador said the country plans to launch many more satellites and accused the United States of trying to block its efforts to help peacefully develop outer space.

Kim In Ryong told a UN General Assembly committee meeting on “International Cooperation in the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space” that the country’s five-year plan for 2016-2020 includes development of “practical satellites that can contribute to the economic development and improvement of the people’s living.”

But US hawks remain unconvinced.

Former CIA director James Woolsey said the new threat was being taken seriously by the US. 

He said: “The really dangerous thing is that they can both orbit satellites – they’ve orbited several – and use nuclear weapons. 

“And if they detonate a weapon up some miles above the earth in a satellite, they can knock out a major share of our electric grid.

“It’s much harder to hit a city than it is to detonate something in space that’s just put in a satellite. 

“So we’re not talking about some gigantic project, just detonating a nuclear weapon in a satellite in orbit, in low Earth orbit.

“They’re closer to doing that than they are to being able to hit a target in the United States.” 

“You’re going to have to worry about – especially with the North Koreans and the Iranians – you’re going to have to worry about electromagnetic pulses that they would produce, knocking out our electric grid. 

“And we didn’t have to worry about that in previous wars.”

As fears escalate unclassified documents from the Cold War reveal the US detonated a nuclear bomb in the atmosphere themselves to see what would happen. 

At the height of their rivalry with Russia, on July 9 1962 the US launched operation Starfish Prime. 

With an explosive yield of 1.45 megatons – approximately a hundred times that of the Hiroshima bomb which was around 13 kilotons – it was expected to give the US a tip-off on what they could expect if the USSR decided to send a bomb into space. 

Starfish Prime was part of a series of high-altitude tests, and the effects were felt for thousands of miles. 

The explosion took place 400 kilometres above the Johnston Atoll, roughly 900 miles southwest of Hawaii, above the Northern Pacific Ocean. 

It was also aimed at testing how the earth’s radiation belts, know as the Van Allen belts, would react.

The resulting fallout from the bomb caused a temporary alteration in the shape of the belts, and a faux aurora borealis was seen across the Pacific Ocean, from Hawaii to New Zealand. 

Crucial to the test was how far reaching was the impact of the Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP). 

It was reported the Hawaiian Island of Oahu received a power surge that knocked out numerous electric devices, but it was during a time when there was less technology and less systems critically dependent on the infrastructure, and in an area which was less built up than cities such as New York. 

And reports claim that one third of the satellites in lower orbit were damaged by the artificial radiation belt which was created and the EMPs, which could have devastating consequences today as there were only a fraction of satellites during the 1960s when compared to today. 

The US conducted its last nuclear test in 1992, after the fall of the Soviet empire, and there has been debate over the use of nukes ever since but the current situation with North Korea has thrust them into the spotlight once again. 

The hermit kingdom conducted a failed missile test in flagrant fireguard of international sanctions in recent weeks, which has elicited swift retribution from Mr tRump who promptly send warships to the Korean peninsula. 

The commander-in-chief has deployed the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier group alongside the USS Michigan, nuclear-powered submarine in North Korean waters. 

It was joined by Japanese warships in a show of strength against the despot. 

Kim Jong-un retaliated by threatening to our the US submarines into ‘underwater ghosts’. 

Pyongyang’s propaganda website Uriminzokkiri said: “The moment the USS Michigan tries to budge even a little, it will be doomed to face the miserable fate of becoming a underwater ghost without being able to come to the surface.”