North Korea fired a long-range ballistic missile into the sea off its east coast today, South Korea and Japan said, a day after Seoul reported that North Korea was making preparations to test-launch an intercontinental ballistic missile.
The launch, at a sharply raised angle, was from an area near the North's capital, Pyongyang, at 7:10am local time, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said this morning in a statement. The Japanese government later said today the missile dropped into the sea at 8:37am local time.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the test was a warning to enemies that have been threatening the country's security, North Korea’s KCNA state news agency said.
Photo: AFP
"The test-fire is an appropriate military action that fully meets the purpose of informing the rivals, who have intentionally escalated the regional situation and posed a threat to the security of our Republic recently, of our counteraction will," Kim was quoted as saying by KCNA.
Earlier, the Japanese government said the missile was expected to land about 300km (190 miles) west of Okushiri Island off its northern Hokkaido island, outside its exclusive economic zone and towards the Russian coast.
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba later said today there had been no reported damage from the launch.
Japanese Defence Minister Gen Nakatani said today Japan strongly condemns the North's action, which threatened not only Japan but also the international community. The flight time was likely the longest of North Korean missile launches and could be a new type of missile, said Nakatani.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs today strongly condemned North Korea’s launch for “obstructing regional peace and stability.”
Taiwan continues to work with like-minded countries in safeguarding freedom, openness, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region, it added.
Yesterday, South Korea's Defense Intelligence Command said the North had placed a mobile launcher at a location making preparations to launch what could be an ICBM around the time of the US presidential election, which takes place next week Tuesday.
US National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett called the launch “a flagrant violation” of multiple UN Security Council resolutions that “needlessly raises tensions and risks destabilizing the security situation in the region.” The US would take all necessary measures to ensure the security of the American homeland and its South Korean and Japanese allies, said Savett.
North Korea has conducted a series of ICBM test launches at a sharply steep trajectory to let the projectiles drop within much shorter distances relative to the designed range, partly for safety and to avoid the political fallout of sending a missile far into the Pacific.
However, a launch with a flatter, standard trajectory is considered essential for ICBM development to ensure the warhead is capable of making a re-entry into the atmosphere while maintaining control to hit an intended target.
The North last test-launched an ICBM in December last year, a projectile fuelled by solid-propellant and fired from a road launcher. That launch was also at a sharply raised angle and gave a flight time that could translate to a potential range of 15,000km on a normal trajectory.
That is a distance that puts anywhere in the mainland US within range.
North Korea has come under international condemnation after South Korea and the US said Pyongyang had dispatched 11,000 troops to Russia for deployment in the war in Ukraine, with 3,000 of them already moved close to the frontlines.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and his South Korean counterpart Kim Yong-hyun condemned the deployment at a meeting in Washington yesterday.
North Korea's move to make its troops co-belligerents fighting alongside the Russians has the potential to lengthen the already 2-1/2 year Ukraine conflict and draw in others, Austin said.
North Korea has already been supplying arms to Russia including missiles, artillery and anti-tank rockets in more than 13,000 containers since August last year, according to the South's intelligence agency. Ukraine authorities have also said some missiles fired by Russia were from the North.
At a summit in June in Pyongyang, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un signed a comprehensive partnership treaty that included a mutual defense pact.
Neither Moscow nor Pyongyang directly acknowledged the supply of weapons from North Korea or the deployment of North Korean troops to the Ukraine war. Putin has said how Russia implements its partnership with North Korea is its own business.
North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui is set to hold strategic consultations in Moscow with her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, Russia said yesterday.
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