North Korea Fires ICBM after Condemning US ‘War’ Moves

The missile has a potential to travel more than 15,000km, meaning it can reach anywhere in Japan and the mainland United States, said Japan’s Parliamentary Vice-Minister of Defense Shingo Miyake, Reuters reported.

South Korea’s National Security Council said it was a solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), labelling the launch a destabilizing act that ignored international warnings and multiple UN Security Council resolutions.

President Yoon Suk-yeol had ordered the upgrading of the effective operation of “nuclear deterrence” by South Korea and the United States, it said in a statement.

The missile on Dec 18 was fired from an area near the capital Pyongyang towards the sea off the North’s east coast and flew about 1,000km, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

Japan’s Defense Ministry reported that the flight lasted 73 minutes, just short of the 74-minute flight by an ICBM North Korea fired in July.

It reached a maximum altitude of more than 6,000km and fell into the sea west of Hokkaido outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone, Japan said.

A missile fired at a lofted trajectory with such an apogee likely means the projectile is capable of reaching 15,000km on a normal trajectory, according to expert analysis of previous North Korean long-range missile tests.

Such launches underscore the North’s efforts to advance its arsenal with longer-range weapons that could potentially reach the mainland US.

The area near the international airport serving Pyongyang is where the North previously launched ICBMs and is suspected to be the location of a missile assembly facility.

The North’s latest, solid-fuel Hwasong-18 ICBMs have been launched from near Pyongyang, at a grass field that analysts said is likely reinforced with concrete for the heavy launch vehicle.

The missile launch on Dec 18 came after North Korea fired a short-range ballistic missile on the night of Dec 17, flying about 570km and falling into the ocean.

North Korea followed up that launch with a fiery statement condemning the US for orchestrating a “preview of a nuclear war”, including the arrival of a nuclear-powered submarine in South Korea on Dec 17.

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan spoke with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts and stressed the importance of sharing missile warning data, the White House said.

The three allies have been working to set up a real-time missile data sharing system, but it is still “a few days” from going operational, South Korea’s defense ministry said.

North Korea says it has a sovereign right to operate a ballistic missile program for self-defense and rejects a UN Security Council ban, which it says is a product of hostile US policy.

After the launch on Dec 17, North Korea’s defense ministry criticized “military gangsters” in the US and South Korea for raising tensions with drills, displays of force, and nuclear war planning.

The statement by an unnamed ministry spokesman cited the arrival of the US nuclear-powered submarine Missouri in the South Korean port city of Busan on Dec 17.

Visits by US nuclear submarines had previously been rare, but they have increased under agreements between Seoul and Washington that have boosted the arrivals of US military assets, including a nuclear ballistic missile submarine and long-range strategic bombers.

The USS Carl Vinson, a US aircraft carrier, also arrived at Busan in November as part of an effort to increase deterrence against North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.

The North Korean Defense Ministry also condemned the meeting by South Korean and US officials in Washington as yet another sign of efforts to streamline war preparations and a provocative show of force.

The US and South Korea have increased the intensity of joint military drills against rising threats from the North, which had tested a range of ballistic missiles and in November launched its first military spy satellite.