North Korea fired a suspected intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) toward the sea Thursday in what would be its first such test since 2017, according to its neighbors’ militaries, raising the ante in a pressure campaign aimed at forcing the United States and other rivals to accept it as nuclear power and remove crippling sanctions.
Officials in Tokyo and Seoul said it appears to have been a new type of ICBM, according to CBS News’ Lucy Craft.
The launch, which extended North Korea’s barrage of weapons tests this year, came after the U.S. and South Korean militaries said the country was preparing a flight of its biggest-yet ICBM.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff and Defense Ministry said the possible “ICBM-level” missile fired from the Sunan area near the North’s capital of Pyongyang travelled 671 miles while reaching a maximum altitude of over 3,852 miles. This indicated the missile was fired on a higher-than-usual angle to avoid reaching the territorial waters of Japan.
Soon after, Seoul said it had test-fired multiple missiles from the ground, air and sea in response. Japanese Deputy Defense Minister Makoto Oniki provided similar flight details and said they suggested a new type of ICBM.
“Even when the international community is responding to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, North Korea has been forcing its missile launches, which could one-sidedly escalate provocations,” Oniki said.
After arriving in Belgium for the Group of Seven summit meetings, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters the missile possibly landed near Japanese territorial waters off the northern island of Hokkaido.
“It’s an unforgivable recklessness. We resolutely condemn the act,” Kishida said. Craft reports that he also said additional sanctions on Pyongyang, in coordination with Washington and Seoul, were on the table.
Following a highly provocative streak in nuclear explosive and ICBM tests in 2017, Kim unilaterally suspended such testing in 2018 ahead of his first meeting with then-U.S. President Donald Trump.
North Korea’s slew of weapons tests reflects a determination to cement its status as a nuclear power and wrest badly needed economic concessions from Washington and others from a position of strength, analysts say.
Kim may also feel a need to trumpet his military accomplishments to his domestic audience and drum up loyalty as he grapples with a broken economy worsened by pandemic border closures.
“Despite economic challenges and technical setbacks, the Kim regime is determined to advance its missile capabilities,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Seoul’s Ewha Womans University. “It would be a mistake for international policymakers to think the North Korean missile threat can be put on the back burner while the world deals with the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Source: cbsnews
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