*North Korea’s latest launch was a big, new intercontinental ballisticmissile (ICBM), state media reported on Friday, in a test leader Kim JongUn said was designed to demonstrate the might of its nuclear force anddeter any US military moves.*
The Thursday launch was the first full ICBM test by nuclear-armed NorthKorea since 2017. Flight data indicated the missile flew higher and longerthan any of North Korea’s previous tests before crashing into the sea westof Japan.- Advertisement -Unmute
Called the Hwasong-17, the ICBM would be the largest liquid-fuelled missileever launched by any country from a road-mobile launcher, analysts say.
Its range and size also suggest North Korea plans to tip it with multiplewarheads that could hit several targets or with decoys to confusedefenders, according to analysts.
Kim ordered the test because of the “daily-escalating military tension inand around the Korean peninsula” and the “inevitability of thelong-standing confrontation with the U.S. imperialists accompanied by thedanger of a nuclear war”, the KCNA state news agency reported.
“The strategic forces … are fully ready to thoroughly curb and contain anydangerous military attempts of the U.S. imperialists,” Kim said whileoverseeing the launch, according to KCNA.
North Korea’s return to testing weapons that are believed to be capable ofstriking the United States poses a direct challenge to President Joe Bidenas he responds to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
It also raises the prospect of a new crisis following the election of anew, conservative South Korean administration that has pledged a moremuscular military strategy towards North Korea.
South Korea’s conservative president-elect, Yoon Suk-yeol, said North Koreahad nothing to gain from provocation.
In a telephone conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping after thelaunch, Yoon called for close coordination on North Korea’s completedenuclearisation, his office said. Xi said China and South Korea shouldbolster mutual political trust, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said.
China, North Korea’s sole major ally and neighbour, urged restraint on “allsides” after the test.
South Korea staged an exercise with F-35 fighter jets on Friday. The launchalso drew condemnation from the United States and Japan.
Kim said the test would help convince the world of the modern features ofhis country’s strategic forces.
“Any forces should be made to be well aware of the fact that they will haveto pay a very dear price before daring to attempt to infringe upon thesecurity of our country,” he said.
A spokesperson for the White House, asked about Kim’s remarks, said it hadnothing to add to its earlier comments on the launch.
*‘STRIKING DEMONSTRATION’*
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Responding to the launch, which was in violation of U.N. sanctions, throughthe Security Council will be far more difficult now than after NorthKorea’s last such test in 2017.
Security Council members are at odds over the Ukraine war making the kindof sanctions that it imposed on North Korea at that time a far morecomplicated process.
The Security Council will meet later on Friday to discuss the launch. OnThursday, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged North Korea “to desistfrom taking any further counter-productive actions”.
The U.S. State Department announced sanctions on Thursday on two Russiancompanies, a Russian and a North Korean individual, and North Korea’sSecond Academy of Natural Science Foreign Affairs Bureau for transferringsensitive items to North Korea’s missile programme.
North Korean state media photographs showed a massive missile, paintedblack with a white nosecone, rising on a column of flame from a launchvehicle.
The Hwasong-17 flew for 1,090 km (680 miles) to a maximum altitude of6,248.5 km (3,905 miles) and hit a target in the sea, KCNA reported. Thosenumbers are similar to data reported by Japan and South Korea.
NK Pro, a Seoul-based website that monitors North Korea, said discrepanciesin the imagery and video released by state media suggested that it may havebeen shot on different dates, raising the possibility that North Korea washiding details about the missile launch.
North Korea never acknowledged what South Korea said was a failed missilelaunch from the same airport last week, and on Thursday the South’s Yonhapnews agency cited unnamed officials who said that they were examiningwhether the latest successful test may in fact have been a Hwasong-15 ICBM,which was test fired in November 2017.
KCNA called Thursday’s successful test a “striking demonstration of greatmilitary muscle,” while Kim said it was a “miraculous” and “priceless”victory for the Korean people.
Later, the state broadcaster released a video of the launch featuring Kimin a leather jacket and sunglasses.
North Korea first showed off the Hwasong-17 at a military parade in October2020. Analysts said at the time it appeared considerably larger than theHwasong-15.
It was displayed a second time at a defence exhibition in October 2021.
Officials in Seoul and Washington previously said launches on Feb. 27 andMarch 5 involved parts of the Hwasong-17 ICBM system, likely in preparationfor a full test.
