North Korea has fired a suspected long-range ballistic missile off its eastern coast, according to officials in neighboring South Korea and Japan, with Tokyo lodging a “stern protest” over the launch.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it had “detected what was presumed to be a long-range ballistic missile fired from the Pyongyang area Wednesday around 1000 (01:00 GMT)”.
Japan’s Coast Guard and Defense Ministry also detected the weapon, with Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno telling reports it flew for about 74 minutes, reaching an altitude of 6,000 km (3,728 miles), in what would be the longest ever flight time for a North Korean missile.
The Coast Guard said it fell into the sea east of the Korean peninsula.
North Korea has stepped up its saber-rattling this week, with Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong Un, condemning a United States plan to deploy a nuclear missile submarine to waters near the Korean peninsula and threatening to shoot down spy planes after claiming US reconnaissance planes recently violated its air space.
Japan’s Matsuno described the launch as a “serious provocation” in breach of United Nations sanctions and said a “stern protest” had been lodged through diplomatic channels in Beijing.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was expected to meet South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital, later on Wednesday.
Matsuno said a summit was also planned involving the two countries, Australia and New Zealand.
“We will respond in close cooperation with the international community,” he told a news conference.
Pyongyang has carried out successive weapons tests as it looks to modernize its military. This year, it launched its first-ever solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and tried to put its first military spy satellite into orbit. That effort was a failure but officials have promised to try again.
North Korea is banned from using ballistic missile technology, including for satellite launches, under UN sanctions imposed over its nuclear weapons programs.
South Korea and the US are due to start major annual joint military exercises, known as Ulchi Freedom Shield, next month.
North Korea regards such exercises as rehearsals for invasion, claiming its military activities are a necessary response.
Analysts say commercial satellite imagery suggests North Korea is planning to stage large displays of military force, including a major parade, for an upcoming holiday on July 27 that commemorates its claim to victory in the 1950-1953 Korean War. The war ended in a truce. (Source: Al Jazeera & News Agencies; File Photo: Korean People’s Army Test-Launches a Hwasong-18 Intercontinental Ballistic Missile on May 16, 2023 © Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) via Reuters)
