North Korea said Friday it test-fired its biggest-yet intercontinental ballistic missile under the orders of leader Kim Jong Un, who vowed to expand the North’s "nuclear war deterrent" while preparing for a "long-standing confrontation" with the US. The report by North Korean state media came a day after the militaries of South Korea and Japan said they detected the North launching an ICBM in its first long-range test since 2017, reports the AP. The launch extended a barrage of weapons demonstrations this year that analysts say are aimed at forcing the US to accept the idea of North Korea as a nuclear power and remove crippling sanctions against its broken economy.
The Hwasong-17, which was fired at a high angle to avoid the territorial waters of neighbors, reached a maximum altitude of 3,880 miles and traveled 680 miles during a 67-minute flight before landing in waters between North Korea and Japan, Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency said. KCNA claimed the launch met its technical objectives and proved the ICBM could be operated quickly during wartime conditions. The South Korean and Japanese militaries had announced similar flight details, which analysts say suggested that the missile could reach targets 9,320 miles away when fired on normal trajectory with a warhead weighing less than a ton. That would place the entire US mainland within striking distance.
Believed to be about 82 feet long, the Hwasong-17 is the North’s longest-range weapon and, by some estimates, the world’s biggest road-mobile ballistic missile system. North Korea revealed the missile in a military parade in October 2020 and Thursday’s launch was its first full-range test. KCNA paraphrased Kim as saying that his new weapon would make the "whole world clearly aware" of the North’s bolstered nuclear forces. He vowed for his military to acquire "formidable military and technical capabilities unperturbed by any military threat and blackmail and keep themselves fully ready for long-standing confrontation with the US imperialists."
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South Korea’s military responded to Thursday’s launch with live-fire drills of its own missiles launched from land, a fighter jet, and a ship. Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said he talked with South Korean counterpart Chung Eui-yong over the phone and agreed to strengthen bilateral cooperation against the North Korean threat and seek further UN Security Council actions against Pyongyang. The United States requested an open Security Council meeting on the launch and anticipates it on Friday, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters.
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