Seoul: North Korea on Thursday conducted its first intercontinental ballistic missile launch in a month, possibly testing a new more mobile, harder-to-detect missile for the first time, its neighbours said, as it extends its provocative run of weapons tests.
Japan briefly urged residents on a northern island to take shelter in an indication of its vigilance over North Korea’s evolving missile threats.
The missile was launched on a high angle from near the North Korean capital of Pyongyang and fell in the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan following a 1,000-kilometre (620-mile) flight, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staffs said in a statement. It described its range as medium or longer. The US National Security Council called it a long-range missile and Japan’s government said it likely had an intercontinental range.
South Korea’s military believes North Korea launched a new type of ballistic missile, possibly using solid fuel, a defense official said under the condition of anonymity because of office rules. If the launch involved a solid-fuel ICBM, it would be the North’s first test of such a weapon. North Korea’s known ICBMs all use liquid propellants that must be fuelled before launches. But the fuel in a solid-propellant weapon is already loaded, allowing it to be moved easier and fired faster.
A solid-fuel ICBM is one of the key high-tech weapons that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has vowed to build to better cope with what he calls US military threats. He also wants a multiwarhead missile, a nuclear-powered submarine, a hypersonic missile and a spy satellite.