North Korea yesterday conducted its first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launch in a month, possibly testing a new type of more mobile, harder-to-detect weapons system, its neighbors said, in an extension of Pyongyang’s provocative run of missile tests.
The launch prompted Japan to issue an evacuation order for Hokkaido, and although it was later retracted, it shows the vigilance of North Korea’s neighbors over its evolving missile threats.
The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile was launched on a high angle from near Pyongyang and fell in the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan following a 1,000km flight.
Photo: AFP
The Joint Chiefs of Staff described the missile as having a medium or longer range.
The US National Security Council called it a long-range missile, while the Japanese Ministry of Defense called it an ICBM-class weapon.
The South Korean military believes Pyongyang launched a new type of ballistic missile, possibly using solid fuel, a defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of office rules.
If the launch involved a solid-fuel ICBM, it would be the North’s first test of such a weapon.
North Korea’s known ICBMs all use liquid propellant systems that require them to be fueled before launches.
However, the fuel in a solid-propellant weapon is already loaded inside, allowing them to be moved more easily and fired more quickly.
A solid-propellant ICBM is one of the key high-tech weapons that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has vowed to build to better cope with what he calls US military threats.
Other weapons he wants to acquire are a multiwarhead missile, a nuclear-powered submarine, a hypersonic missile and a spy satellite.
Kim Dong-yub, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said the launch might have involved a new intermediate or long-range missile powered by solid propellants, or be linked to North Korean preparation to launch a spy satellite.
US National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said the latest launch “needlessly raises tensions and risks destabilizing the security situation in the region.”
Watson said the US would take all necessary measures to ensure the security of the US, and South Korean and Japanese allies.
During an emergency South Korean National Security Council meeting, officials condemned the launch and stressed the need to tighten three-way security cooperation with Washington and Tokyo.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida held a Japanese National Security Council meeting to analyze the missile, as well as Japan’s response to it.
The top nuclear envoys of Seoul, Washington and Tokyo held a telephone conversation where they called for a “decisive and united international response” to North Korean provocations and stronger efforts to stem illicit North Korean activities that allegedly fund its weapons program.
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