By james art The state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Thursday’s launch was carried out on the orders of leader Kim Jong Un and that the flight records exceeded those recorded in previous missile launches.
North Korea confirmed the launch hours after its neighbors detected the firing of what they suspected was a new, more versatile weapon aimed at the US mainland.
“I confirm that the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) will never change its line of strengthening its nuclear forces,” Mr Kim said, according to a North Korean Defense Ministry statement carried by state media.
KCNA said Mr Kim was present at the launch site and quoted him as saying the launch was an “appropriate military action” to show North Korea’s determination to respond to moves by its enemies that threaten the country’s security.
The first launch in nearly a year tests what could be a new, more flexible weapon aimed at the US mainland and a possible attempt to get Americans’ attention ahead of next week’s election.
The launch came as Washington warned that North Korean troops in Russian uniforms were moving into Ukraine, possibly to augment Russian forces and join the war.
US National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett called the launch a “clear violation” of multiple UN Security Council resolutions that “needlessly heightens tensions and risks destabilizing the security situation in the region.”
He said the US would take all necessary measures to ensure the security of the US homeland and its South Korean and Japanese allies.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea may have tested a new long-range solid-fuel ballistic missile.
Solid-propellant missiles are easier to move and conceal and can be fired faster than liquid-propellant weapons.
Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesman Lee Sung-jun said the launch was likely timed for the U.S. election in an effort to boost North Korea’s future negotiating power. He said the North Korean missile was fired at a high angle, apparently to avoid neighboring countries.
Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani told reporters the missile could be new because its flight duration of 86 minutes and maximum altitude of more than 4,350 miles exceeded the corresponding data from previous North Korean missile tests, an assessment shared by South Korea.
Both South Korea and Japan condemned the North Korean launch as a threat to international peace and said they were in close coordination with the US.
Mr Lee said South Korea and the US were planning “sufficient” bilateral military exercises and trilateral exercises with Japan in response to North Korean threats.
He said the North Korean missile may have been launched from a 12-axis launch vehicle, the North’s largest mobile launch platform, which it unveiled in September. The discovery of the vehicle has sparked outside speculation that North Korea may be developing an intercontinental ballistic missile that is larger than existing ones.
North Korea has made advances in its missile technology in recent years, but many foreign experts believe the country has yet to acquire a functioning nuclear-tipped missile capable of striking the US mainland. They say North Korea likely possesses short-range missiles capable of delivering nuclear strikes across South Korea.
One of the technological hurdles North Korea still faces is whether its weapons can survive the harsh conditions of atmospheric re-entry. South Korean officials and experts have previously said North Korea may test a normal-angle intercontinental ballistic missile to test this capability.
North Korea last fired an intercontinental ballistic missile in December 2023, when it launched the solid-fuel Hwasong-18.
Over the past two years, Mr. Kim has used Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a window to step up weapons tests and threats while expanding military cooperation with Moscow.
South Korea, the US and others have accused North Korea of sending thousands of troops to support Russia’s war against Ukraine. They said North Korea had already sent artillery, missiles and other weapons to Russia.
On Wednesday, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said North Korean troops dressed in Russian uniforms and carrying Russian equipment were moving into Ukraine, which he called a dangerous and destabilizing development.
Mr Austin said the “probability is quite high” that Russia would use the troops in combat.
South Korea said on Wednesday that North Korea had sent more than 11,000 troops to Russia and that more than 3,000 of them had been moved near battlefields in western Russia.