Did Trump hackers blow up missile?

A CYBER-attack from the US could have been responsible for thwarting North Korea’s missile test seconds after launch, it was claimed yesterday.

Former British foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind said there was a ‘strong belief’ American intelligence had used cyber warfare to successfully foil missile tests before.

In an embarrassment for Kim Jong-un, the medium-range missile exploded just four seconds after it was launched on Sunday from a site near the port city of Sinpo.

Sir Malcolm told the BBC: ‘It could have failed because the system is not competent enough to make it work, but there is a very strong belief that the US – through cyber methods – has been successful on several occasions in interrupting these sorts of tests and making them fail.’

In 2014, Barack Obama ordered that efforts be stepped up to counter North Korea’s missile capabilities with cyber attacks. North Korea has seen repeated failed launches over the years.

Meanwhile, it is understood that Donald Trump’s national security adviser Lieutenant General HR McMaster has told UK military chiefs that America is confident it has the intelligence to destroy the North’s nuclear sites. Senior sources told the Sunday Times the US can ‘utterly destroy’ key targets using conventional weapons.

A source said: ‘Nothing is off the table. They think they’ve got the capabilities to target things and utterly destroy them.

‘They are confident they know where everything is and can target it efficiently’.

General James ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis is also understood to have briefed Sir Michael Fallon within the past fortnight. Sources said they had agreed China had to play its role and North Korea had to ‘start behaving’.

Cristina Varriale, of the Royal United Service Institute think-tank, said the US could pre-empt a missile launch and attack North Korea’s sites. But if North Korea fired off more than one missile, it would render a US anti-ballistic missile system in South Korea ‘redundant’. She added: ‘If the US was looking to invade North Korea, they have significant forces stationed in South Korea.’

The USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier, which is powered by nuclear reactors and carries almost 100 aircraft, is accompanied by guided-missile destroyers, a cruiser, and a submarine.

There are several US air and naval bases in neighbouring South Korea and Japan, which would enable the country to deploy troops, ships and jets quickly.