Seoul – North Korea launched a ballistic missile with a range of several hundred kilometres into the sea on Sunday, the South Korean military said, adding to a long list of recent aggressions by the autocratic state.
The projectile was fired from a location north of Pyongyang near Pukchang and soared 500 kilometres before falling into the water, the South Korean armed forces’ Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
The official North Korean news agency KCNA confirmed the launch on Monday, noting that it had been supervised by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The missile was named as a ground-to-ground medium-to-long range strategic ballistic missile, Pukguksong-2.
Kim, known in North Korea as Supreme Leader, called the launch “perfect” and gave an order approving the deployment of this weapon system for action, according to KCNA.
Earlier, a US official had identified the missile in question as a medium-range ballistic missile, which has a shorter range than the systems tested by Pyongyang in its last three launches.
Japan was quick to condemn the launch, with a government spokesman in Tokyo saying that the missile had landed in the Sea of Japan but did not reach Japanese territorial waters.
The aggression comes one week after North Korea’s last ballistic missile test. That missile also landed in the Sea of Japan and prompted renewed international outcry against the reclusive dictatorship.
According to the Yonhap news agency, South Korean President Moon Jae In convened an emergency meeting of the National Security Council.
Sunday marked the second time Moon’s leadership has been tested by missile launches by the North since he took office less than two weeks ago.
The latest launch, North Korea’s eighth so far this year, is thought to have taken place near Pukchang, the site of a botched test launch in late April in which a ballistic missile failed to leave North Korean territory.
The South Korean military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the projectile was unlikely an intercontinental-range ballistic missile, Yonhap reported, amid concerns that North Korea may be developing a new type of weapon.
Last Sunday’s test-fire was of a “Hwasong-12” medium-range missile, which flew 787 kilometres and reached an altitude of 2,100 kilometres, according to North Korea’s state news agency KCNA.
That test prompted strong condemnation from the UN Security Council.
US-based observers said that the “Hwasong-12” missile launch demonstrated significant progress in the communist state’s push to develop an intercontinental missile – which could carry nuclear warheads to Japan, South Korea, or even the US.
The latest show of military strength comes just days after the US sent the Navy aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan to carry out patrols near the Korean peninsula. South Korean and US media reported that it joined USS Carl Vinson in the region to conduct drills in the Western Pacific.
The Carl Vinson carrier was sent to the region in April in response to North Korea’s repeated missile launches. The Ronald Reagan carrier is thought to replace it in the long term.
President Donald Trump has warned that the US could take unilateral action against North Korea in retaliation, as Pyongyang continues to develop its nuclear programme.
-dpa
