North Korea fired a ballistic missile toward the East Sea on Thursday, escalating tensions amid its continued refusal to answer what used to be daily cross-border calls, the South Korean military said.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected the launch in the vicinity of Pyongyang at 7.23 a.m., and the missile, fired at a lofted angle, flew about 1,000 km before splashing into the water, reports Yonhap News Agency.
“The intelligence authorities of South Korea and the US are conducting a comprehensive analysis on its detailed specifications,” the JCS added.
The North appears to have tested a “new” missile system, a Seoul official said, adding that the allies are looking into “various” possibilities, including the launch having involved a solid-propellant intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
South Korea’s presidential National Security Council (NSC) “strongly” denounced the North’s launch of a ballistic missile, while the US NSC called the launch an “ICBM” test.
Seoul officials said the latest launch might have been aimed partially at flaunting the North’s nuclear force ahead of the 111th birth anniversary of the late Kim Il-sung, the North’s national founder and the current leader’s grandfather, on Saturday, and protesting the deterrence efforts by Seoul and Washington.
The North’s last launch involving an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) or a longer-range one was that of a Hwasong-17 ICBM on March 16.
This week’s launch came amid speculation that the reclusive regime could fire a long-range rocket to put its first military satellite into orbit given its professed plan to finish preparations for the launch by this month.
Since April 7, the North has not responded to routine cross-border calls through inter-Korean liaison and military communication lines, raising concerns that the absence of regular contact could lead to provocations by the reclusive regime.
Pyongyang has recently ratcheted up tensions through hardening rhetoric and other provocative moves, such as the testing of what it claimed to be underwater nuclear attack drones.
