SEOUL: North Korea launched another long-range ballistic missile on Monday with the potential capability of striking the United States, Seoul and Tokyo officials said.
The firing followed the test of a shorter range missile on Sunday night, with the back-to-back launches coming immediately in the wake of another bout of fearsome rhetoric between North Korea and the US-South Korean allies.
South Korea’s military said it had detected the launch of a long-range ballistic missile from the Pyongyang area on Monday morning that flew 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) before splashing down in the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan.
The South reported the missile flew up rather than across, a method Pyongyang has previously said it employs in some weapons tests to avoid flying over neighbouring countries.
Japan’s defence ministry said it was an ICBM-class missile with a potential range of more than 15,000 kilometres that would cover all of the United States.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida described the two launches as a “threat to peace and stability”, while the US State Department also quickly condemned them.
“These launches, like the other ballistic missile launches Pyongyang has conducted this year, are in violation of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions,” a US State Department said in a statement to AFP.
Most-advanced ICBM
North Korea previously test-fired four ICBMs this year. It first launched the Hwasong-18 — its most advanced and powerful ICBM, in April, then again in July.
The Hwasong-18 is North Korea’s first ICBM to use solid fuel, which makes it easier to transport and faster to launch than liquid-fuelled versions.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesperson said they were analysing whether Monday’s launch was a solid-fuelled ICBM.
Park Won-gon, a professor of North Korean Studies at Ewha University, said there was a high possibility Pyongyang test-fired a Hwasong-18
“The Hwasong-18 uses solid fuel, so there will be no preparation time, and it can be fired immediately from a mobile launcher, and it can be seen as a weapon system with a practical ability to strike the US mainland,” Park told AFP.
The North’s launch of its military spy satellite launch last month further damaged ties.
The North portrayed it as a major breakthrough, claiming it was providing images of US and South Korean military sites.
That launch fractured a military agreement between the Koreas established to de-escalate tensions on the peninsula.
Following the spy satellite launch, both sides ramped up security along the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating them.
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