Pyongyang
North Korea fired a ballistic missile off its east coast towards Japan on Wednesday, South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff said, in a move that followed threats of retaliation for alleged US spy plane flights.
The missile flew about 1,000km (621 miles) before crashing into the water, South Korea’s military said. Japan’s chief cabinet secretary said the missile came down about 250km west of Okushiri island in Japan’s northernmost Hokkaido prefecture, after a flight taking 74 minutes that reached an altitude of more than 6,000km.
It took place as the top US general met his South Korean and Japanese counterparts for a rare trilateral meeting in Hawaii. Colonel Dave Butler, a spokesman for Gen Mark Milley, told Reuters that the North Korean launch occurred at the conclusion of the meeting, which had been long planned.
Washington has been pressing the uneasy neighbours to work more closely to better counter rising threats from China and North Korea. Seoul and Tokyo have strained relations over disputes dating to Japan’s 1910-45 occupation of Korea.
Some experts said North Korea likely tested its developmental, road-mobile Hwasong-18 ICBM, a type of solid-fuel weapon that is harder to detect and intercept than the North’s other liquid-fuel ICBMs. The North Korean ruler, Kim Jong-un, previously called the Hwasong-18 his most powerful nuclear weapon.
South Korean and Japanese assessments said the missile was launched on a high angle, in an apparent attempt to avoid neighbouring countries.
The launch is North Korea’s 12th this year. In April the regime test-fired its first ever solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile, and at the end of May conducted a failed attempt to launch what it called its first-ever spy satellite on a new launch vehicle. South Korea said last week that it recovered the satellite wreckage from the ocean and it had “no military utility as a reconnaissance satellite at all”.
The latest launch comes after North Korea made heated complaints in recent days over US military activities, accusing American spy planes of violating airspace in its economic zones and condemning a recent visit to South Korea by an American nuclear-powered cruise missile submarine.
Kim Yo-jong, the influential sister of Kim Jong-un, on Monday threatened “shocking” consequences over US reconnaissance activity.
She said the US spy plane flew over the North’s eastern exclusive economic zone eight times in a day, and the North scrambled warplanes to chase it away.
The US and South Korea dismissed the North’s accusations and urged it to refrain from any acts or rhetoric that raise tensions.
North Korea has made numerous similar threats over alleged US reconnaissance activities, but its latest statements came amid heightened animosities over its barrage of missile tests this year.
UN security council resolutions ban North Korea’s use of ballistic missile technology, including for satellite launches. The security council, as well as a number of countries, have imposed sanction on North Korea for its missile and nuclear weapons programmes.
Analysts say commercial satellite imagery shows North Korea is expected to stage displays of military force, including a large parade, for a coming holiday on 27 July that commemorates its claim to victory in the 1950-53 Korean war against the US, South Korea and their allies.
