SEOUL: North Korea today conducted its first intercontinental ballistic missile test this month, possibly the first test of a new type of mobile and hard-to-detect missile. Neighbors said. While the country continues a provocative run of weapons tests.
- After a flight of one thousand km, this missile landed in the area of Korean and Japanese territorial waters
- It is likely to be a high-tech intercontinental missile that is solid-fueled and difficult to detect
Signaling its awareness of North Korea’s looming missile threat, Japan briefly requested residents of its northern island to temporarily seek refuge in a safe place. The missile was fired at a high angle from near North Korea’s capital Pyongyang and fell after a flight of 1,000 kilometers in the waters between the Korean peninsula and Japan, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. He described the missile as having a medium or long range. While the National Security Council of America has described this missile as long range and the Japanese government has said that it is likely to be an intercontinental range.
South Korea’s military believes North Korea has tested a new type of ballistic missile that likely used solid fuel, a defense official said on condition of anonymity. This is likely to be the first time this has happened. North Korea has previously used liquid fuel in all its intercontinental ballistic missiles, which had to be refueled before launch. A solid-fueled intercontinental ballistic missile is considered a high-tech weapon.