North Korea yesterday test-fired what appeared to be a hypersonic missile off its east coast, but it exploded in midair, South Korea’s military said.
The missile was launched from near the capital, Pyongyang, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
The Japanese Ministry of Defense said the missile flew to an altitude of about 100km and laterally more than 200km.
Photo: AFP
Senior officials of South Korea, the US and Japan held a telephone call and condemned the launch as a contravention of multiple UN Security Council resolutions and a serious threat to the peace and stability of the region and beyond.
The South Korean and US air forces said they conducted joint exercises involving F-22 and F-35 stealth fighters as part of their annual Buddy Squadron training.
South Korea’s marine corps staged separate firing drills near the maritime border with the North for the first time since Seoul scrapped an inter-Korean military pact early this month. The drills were announced earlier this month.
The US Indo-Pacific Command also issued a condemnation and called on Pyongyang to refrain from further “unlawful and destabilizing” acts.
“While we have assessed that this event does not pose an immediate threat to US personnel, or territory, or to our allies, we continue to monitor the situation,” it said in a statement.
North Korea’s previous known missile launch was on May 30.
The latest missile launch comes a day after the 74th anniversary of the beginning of the Korean War.
The North’s Korean Central News Agency yesterday said a mass rally in Pyongyang was held to commemorate the anniversary, calling it a day of “struggle against US imperialism” and calling the US its archenemy.
Recently, North Korea has flown hundreds of balloons carrying trash toward the South.
Takeoffs and landings at South Korea’s Incheon International Airport yesterday were disrupted for about three hours before dawn because of balloons launched by North Korea filled with refuse, an airport spokesperson said.
One balloon landed on the tarmac near passenger Terminal 2 and the three runways at Incheon were temporarily shut down, the spokesperson said.
The disruption to domestic and international flights occurred between 1:46am and 4:44am, and the runways have since reopened, Incheon International Airport Corp said.
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