North Korea Launches Longest Ever Ballistic Missile Test That 'Capable Of Reaching US' (X image @yugoslav_luka)

Pyongyang, North Korea: North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) towards eastern-coast. The missile is believed to be the longest flight-time for a North Korean missile, said authorities in South Korea and Japan. The move raised fears that a new weapon has been developed.

In a statement released, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said the missile launched towards the East Sea, which is also known as the Sea of Japan, was fired on a “lofted trajectory”. JCS also added that initial analysis indicates that Pyongyang might have used a newly developed solid-fuel booster for its long-range missiles.

Gen Nakatani, Defence Minister of Japan said the missile, which splashed down about 300km (190 miles) west of Japan’s Okushiri Island, had flown the longest time of any of Pyongyang’s past missile tests.

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“It was the longest time flying of any missile so far. I think it may be different from conventional missiles,” he told reporters.

Launch of missiles in “lofted trajectory” means firing the missile almost vertically. This allows a missile to travel to a very high altitude but then land a short horizontal distance from the launch site. The launches like this are said to enable Pyongyang to gather data to better understand the challenges faced when a long-range warhead re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere

As per South Korea and Japan, the missile recorded a flight-time of 87 minutes, longer than the last ICBM test launch in December 2023, which clocked in at 73 minutes. The trajectory of the missile reached an altitude of 7,000 km (4,349 miles) and flew a distance of 1,000 km (621 miles), said Japan. Tokyo called it an ICBM-class missile.

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The latest missile launch comes a day after Seoul’s military intelligence agency told lawmakers that Pyongyang has likely completed preparations for its seventh nuclear test and was close to test-firing a long-range missile capable of reaching the United States, said media report.

US called the launch a “violation” of multiple UN Security Council resolutions. The country’s National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett told media that the launch “needlessly raises tensions and risks destabilising the security situation in the region”.

(With inputs from agencies)