North Korea launches intercontinental missile, escalating threat to US mainland
North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile Thursday, marking its first test in nearly a year, aimed at demonstrating its capability to strike the US mainland. Leader Kim Jong Un ordered the launch, calling it a “military action” to counter threats to North Korea’s security, according to the Defence Ministry.
North Korea launched a new intercontinental ballistic missile on Thursday in its first test in almost a year of a weapon designed to threaten the US mainland and occurring days ahead of the US election.
North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un ordered the missile test and was at the launch site, calling the launch “an appropriate military action” to show North Korea’s resolve to respond to its enemies’ moves that has threatened the North’s safety, according to its Defence Ministry.
The United States, South Korea and Japan had also identified the weapon as an ICBM and condemned the launch as raising tensions. The launch came as Washington warned that North Korean troops in Russian uniforms are heading toward Ukraine, likely to augment Russian forces and join the war.
North Korea confirmed the launch hours after its neighbours detected the firing of what they suspected was a new, more agile weapon targeting the mainland US. The statement was unusually quick since North Korea usually describes its weapons tests a day after they occur.
“I affirm that the DPRK will never change its line of bolstering up its nuclear forces,” Kim said, according to a North Korean Defence Ministry statement carried by state media. DPRK stands for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s official name.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea could have tested a new, solid-fueled long-range ballistic missile. Missiles with built-in solid propellants are easier to move and hide and can be launched quicker than liquid-propellant weapons.
JCS spokesperson Lee Sung Joon said the launch was possibly timed to the US election in an attempt to strengthen North Korea’s future bargaining power. He said the North Korean missile was launched on a high angle, apparently to avoid neighboring countries.
Japanese Defence Minister Gen Nakatani told reporters the missile’s flight duration of 86 minutes and its maximum altitude of more than 7,000 kilometers (4,350 miles) exceeded corresponding data from previous North Korean missile tests. Lee, the South Korean military spokesperson, said South Korea has a similar assessment on Thursday’s launch.
KCNA said the flight characteristics of this launch exceeded those registered for its previous missile launches but did not detail the differences.
US National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett had called the launch “a flagrant violation” of multiple UN Security Council resolutions that “needlessly raises tensions and risks destabilising the security situation in the region.” Savett said the US will take all necessary measures to ensure the security of the American homeland and its South Korean and Japanese allies.
Both South Korea and Japan condemned the North Korean launch for posing a threat to international peace and they said they’re closely coordinating with the US over the latest North Korean weapons test. Lee said that South Korea and the US plan “sufficient” bilateral military exercises and trilateral ones involving Japan in response to North Korean threats.
Lee said the missile may have been fired from a 12-axle launch vehicle, the North’s largest mobile launch platform that it disclosed in September. The vehicle’s unveiling had prompted speculation North Korea could be developing an ICBM that is bigger than its existing ones.
North Korea has made strides in its missile technologies in recent years, but many foreign experts believe the country has yet to acquire a functioning nuclear-armed missile that can strike the U.S. mainland. They say North Korea likely possesses short-range missiles that can deliver nuclear strikes across all of South Korea.
One of the technological hurdles North Korea still faces is for its weapons to be capable of surviving the harsh conditions of atmospheric reentry. South Korean officials and experts earlier said North Korea may test-launch a ICBM on a normal angle to verify that capability.
Lee said a high-angle launch like Thursday’s test cannot examine a missile’s reentry vehicle technology. He said that more analysis is required to find why North Korea didn’t conduct a standard-trajectory launch on Thursday. (AP)
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