North Korea test-fired one of its most powerful long-range ballistic missiles on Monday, Seoul and Tokyo said, a day after the nuclear-armed country launched a short-range weapon into the Sea of Japan.
Japan's Defense Ministry said the weapon, believed to be an intercontinental ballistic missile, had flown for about 73 minutes before splashing down into waters outside the country's exclusive economic zone (EEZ), approximately 250 kilometers west of Hokkaido's Okushiri Island.
In Seoul, the South Korean Presidential Office "strongly condemned" what it said was the launch of a "solid-fueled ICBM," with President Yoon Suk-yeol ordering a joint response together with the U.S. and Japan by employing the countries' real-time missile information-sharing system.
The missile appeared to have been launched on a "lofted" trajectory, meaning it had been fired on a steep vertical path, hitting a maximum altitude of more than 6,000 km and traveling around 1,000 km, the Japanese Defense Ministry said.
The ICBM launch was the North's fifth firing of a long-range missile in 2023 — its most ever in a single year.
"Based on the flight trajectory of the ICBM-class missile that was launched, it is estimated that its range could exceed 15,000 km, depending on its weight and other factors," Parliamentary Vice Minister of Defense Shingo Miyake said. "In that case, the entire United States would be within the missile's range."
Miyake said Japan was working closely with South Korea and the U.S. to analyze the launch.
Speaking at a news conference later Monday, the Japanese government's top spokesman said that Tokyo had protested the latest missile launch via Pyongyang's embassy in Beijing. North Korea is banned under United Nations sanctions from using ballistic missile technology.
"The actions of North Korea, including its repeated launches of ballistic missiles, are a threat to the peace and security of our region and the international community, and are absolutely unacceptable," said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi.
Tokyo, Seoul and Washington are expected to begin operating a system for sharing real-time North Korean missile warning data before the year's end, but Hayashi said the system was not yet operational.
"The real-time display of North Korea's missile warning data is in the final stages of implementation, and we are still working with the U.S. and South Korea on the details, including the specific timing for the start of implementation," he said.
The White House also condemned the launch, with U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan speaking over the phone with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts following what Washington said was an "intercontinental ballistic missile test."
The launch came as a high-level North Korean delegation visited Beijing on Monday for talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, with the two sides expressing support and trust in their nations' ties. China is North Korea's sole ally and top patron.
North Korea last launched an ICBM in July, when it fired off its new Hwasong-18 solid-fuel missile.
Monday's launch came just hours after the North fired a short-range missile into waters outside Japan's EEZ. The Defense Ministry in Tokyo said that missile flew about 400 km before splashing down in the Sea of Japan.
Last week, the U.S. and South Korea held the second meeting of their Nuclear Consultative Group, with the Yonhap news agency reporting over the weekend that the two allies plan to craft joint guidelines on a nuclear defense strategy by the middle of next year and establish an integrated system to deter North Korea from using its nuclear weapons.
North Korea's Defense Ministry criticized the plan, with a spokesman saying late Sunday that the move is "an open declaration on nuclear confrontation to make the use of nuclear weapons against the DPRK a fait accompli in case of emergency."
DPRK is the acronym for the North's formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
North Korea has made rapid progress in advancing its missile and nuclear weapons programs in recent years, carrying out tests of powerful new systems intended to strike U.S. and allied bases in South Korea and Japan, which host the bulk of American forces in the region.
Last month, Pyongyang trumpeted what it said was the successful launch of its first military spy satellite.
But its tests of ICBMs, including solid-fuel weapons, also show that the regime of Kim Jong Un could theoretically target the United States with its nukes.
Solid-fuel missiles, in particular, offer significant advantages for North Korea over the liquid-fueled weapons that make up most of Pyongyang’s arsenal. They are easier to deploy and can be fired off quicker, giving the United States and its allies less time for its satellites to spot and take them out.
North Korea said in November that it had successfully tested new solid-fuel engines for intermediate-range ballistic missiles, the country’s latest weapon capable of stealthily striking Japan.
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