Newsman: Nuclear-armed North Korea conducted its longest-ever weapons test Tuesday. North Korea launched an intermediate-range and a nuclear-capable ballistic missile that flew over Japan. Officials in Tokyo and Seoul said the missile flew 4,500 to 4,600 km (2,850 miles) to a maximum altitude of about 1,000 km (620 miles).
The intermediate-range ballistic missile could reach the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam and beyond. Some foreign experts say North Korea needs to master a few remaining technologies to acquire functioning nuclear-armed missiles. Each new test pushes it closer to being able to reach the U.S. mainland and its allies with a host of missiles of varying range.
The U.S. government condemned the launch and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan called his Japanese and South Korean counterparts to coordinate a response, the White House said.
The United States, Britain, France, Albania, Norway and Ireland called for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council.
The launch of the ballistic missile (IRBM ) took place from North Korea’s northern Jagang province at around 7:23 a.m. local time, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. Television
Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida called Tuesday’s launch “outrageous,” and said Japan strongly protested the action. South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol promised a resolute response. Both leaders said they would convene the National Security Council to discuss the situation.
Japanese authorities alerted residents in its northeastern regions to evacuate to shelters, in the first “J-alert” since 2017 when North Korea fired an intermediate-range Hwasong-12 missile twice over Japan in a span of weeks during a previous run of weapons tests.
Trains were suspended in the Hokkaido and Aomori regions until the government issued a notice that the North Korean missile appeared to have landed in the Pacific. In Sapporo city, the prefectural capital of Japan’s northernmost main island of Hokkaido, subways were also temporarily halted, with stations packed with morning commuters.
The period while seen a joint drills by the United States, South Korea and Japan, and a visit to the fortified border between the Koreas by U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, who accused the North of undermining security. North Korea has conducted five launches in the last 10 days. Last week ,South Korea, the U.S. and Japan held their first trilateral anti-submarine drills in five years off the Korean Peninsula’s east coast. It followed South Korean and U.S. warships conducting bilateral exercises in the area for four days. Both military drills this week involved the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan.
Later Tuesday, four U.S. F-16 fighter jets and four South Korean F-15s conducted a joint strike drill in which one of the South Korean planes fired two precision-guided Joint Direct Attack Munition bombs into an island target. The exercise was aimed at demonstrating the allies’ ability to accurately strike North Korean targets with “overwhelming force,” the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol called the test “reckless” and said it would bring a decisive response from his country, its allies and the international community.
Speaking to reporters in Tokyo, Kishida called North Korea’s action “barbaric”.
A White House statement said Biden and Kishda “confirmed they would continue to closely coordinate their immediate and longer-term response bilaterally, trilaterally with the Republic of Korea, and with the international community.”
“They resolved to continue every effort to limit the DPRK’s ability to support its unlawful ballistic missile and weapons of mass destruction programs,” it said
U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida spoke by phone and condemned the test in the “strongest terms,” calling it a danger to the Japanese people, and Biden reinforced the “ironclad” U.S. commitment to the defence of Japan, the White House said.
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The United States will also ask the United Nations Security Council to meet publicly on Wednesday on North Korea, a U.S. official said.
According to South Korean and Japanese estimates, the North Korean missile fired from its northern province bordering China traveled 4,500-4,600 kilometers (2,800-2,860 miles) at a maximum altitude of 970-1,000 kilometers (600-620 miles). Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said that it landed in the Pacific about 3,200 kilometers (1,990 miles) off the northern Japanese coast and that there were no reports of damage to Japanese aircraft or ships.
South Korea’s Defense Ministry said the missile flew farther than any other weapon fired by North Korea. Before Tuesday’s launch, the 3,700-kilometer (2,300-mile) flight of a Hwasong-12 in 2017 was North Korea’s longest. It has previously tested intercontinental ballistic missiles at steep angles so they flew shorter distances to avoid neighboring countries.
The South’s joint chiefs said the missile flew approximately 2,796 miles to the east, reaching an altitude of 603 miles and a top speed of Mach 17, before landing in the Pacific Ocean. A body traveling at Mach 1 is traveling at the speed of sound. Mach 2 is twice the speed of sound.
Tuesday’s launch was North Korea’s fifth missile launch in just over a week, and the first time a North Korean missile has flown over Japan since 2017. After North Korea last tested an IRBM this past January, state media said authorities had fired it at a high angle, “in consideration of the security of neighboring countries,” in other words, to avoid sending the missile over Japan.
Japan said it took no steps to shoot the missile down but Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada said it would not rule out any options, including counterattack capabilities, as it looks to strengthen its defences.
South Korea also said it would boost its military and increase allied cooperation.
U.S. National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson called the North Korean test “destabilizing” and said it showed North Korea’s “blatant disregard for United Nations Security Council resolutions and international safety norms.”
The launch violates U.N. Security Council resolutions, which have imposed sanctions over North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.
