Seoul, South Korea
DailyExpertNews
—
North Korea on Friday launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the second missile test by the Kim Jong Un regime in two days, in actions condemned as unacceptable by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
The ICBM was launched from the Sunan area of the North Korean capital Pyongyang around 10:15 a.m. local time and flew about 1,000 kilometers (621 mi) east, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.
Kishida said it likely fell in Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), about 210 kilometers (130 mi) west of Japan’s island of Oshima Oshima, according to Japan’s Coast Guard. It did not fly over Japan.
“North Korea continues to engage in provocative actions with an unprecedented frequency,” Kishida told reporters Friday at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Bangkok, Thailand.
“I want to reiterate that we cannot accept such actions,” he said.
The Japanese government will continue to collect and analyze information and provide updates to the public quickly, he said. So far, there have been no reports of damage to ships at sea, Kishida added.
The ICBM reached an altitude of about 6,100 kilometers (3,790 miles) at Mach 22, or 22 times the speed of sound, according to the JCS, which said details were being analyzed by intelligence agencies in South Korea and the US.
Friday’s missile was about 100 kilometers shorter in altitude and range compared to Pyongyang’s missile test on March 24, which recorded the highest altitude and longest duration of a North Korean missile ever tested, according to a report by the Korean Central News Agency ( KCNA) at the time. That missile reached an altitude of 6,248.5 kilometers (3,905 miles) and flew a distance of 1,090 kilometers (681 miles), KCNA reported.
The JCS called the launch a “considerable provocation and a serious threat”, warned the North of violating the UN Security Council resolution and urged them to stop immediately.
According to US Air Force Colonel Greg Hignite, director of public affairs for US Forces Japan, Misawa Air Force Base issued an alarm following the missile’s firing. It has now been lifted and the US military is still analyzing the flight path, he said.
US President Joe Biden has been briefed on the missile launch and his national security team will “continue close consultations with allies and partners,” National Security Council spokesman Adrienne Watson said in a statement Friday.
“The door is not closed to diplomacy, but Pyongyang must immediately stop its destabilizing actions and instead opt for diplomatic involvement,” Watson said. “The United States will take all necessary measures to ensure the security of the American homeland and the Republic of Korea and Japanese allies.”
Friday’s launch comes a day after Pyongyang fired a short-range ballistic missile into the waters off the east coast of the Korean peninsula and issued a stern warning to the United States of a “fierce military counteraction” against closer defense ties with South Korea. and Japan.
It is the second suspected test launch of an ICBM this month — an earlier missile fired on Nov. 3 was found to have failed, a South Korean government source told DailyExpertNews at the time.
The aggressive acceleration of weapons testing and rhetoric has raised alarm in the region, with the US, South Korea and Japan responding with missile launches and joint military exercises.
Leif-Eric Easley, an associate professor of International Studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, said North Korea “is seeking to disrupt international cooperation against it by escalating military tensions and suggests it has the ability to put American cities at risk.” by a nuclear attack.”
North Korea conducted missile tests for 34 days this year, sometimes firing several missiles in a single day, according to a DailyExpertNews count. The count includes both cruise missiles and ballistic missiles, with the latter accounting for the bulk of North Korean tests this year.
There are substantial differences between these two types of missiles.
A ballistic missile is launched with a rocket and travels outside the Earth’s atmosphere, soaring through space before re-entering the atmosphere and descending, propelled only by gravity to its target.
A cruise missile is powered by a jet engine, remains in the Earth’s atmosphere during its flight, and is maneuverable with flight control surfaces similar to those of an aircraft.
Ankit Panda, senior fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said while he wouldn’t see Friday’s supposed ICBM launch “per se as a message,” it could be seen as part of North Korea’s “process”. of developing capabilities that Kim has identified as essential to the modernization of their nuclear forces.”
The US and international observers have been warning for months that North Korea appears to be preparing for an underground nuclear test, with satellite images showing activity at the nuclear test site. Such a test would be the first in five years for the hermit nation.
Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies, said the ICBM test was designed to validate parts of North Korea’s missile program, something Kim Jong-un promised to do this year. to do.
The recent close-range tests “are exercises for front-line artillery units conducting preemptive nuclear strikes,” Lewis said.
He rejected any political or bargaining message from the tests.
“I wouldn’t think of these tests primarily as signalling. North Korea is not interested in talking right now,” Lewis said.