North Korea causes alarm as it tests another missile in race for nuclear weapon

NORTH KOREA has fired another medium-range missile in its latest ballistics test.

The rocket was fired from an area near the North Korean county of Pukchang, in South Phyongan Province, and flew eastward about 500km (310 miles), said South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The US Pacific Command said it tracked the missile before it landed in the sea.

White House officials travelling in Saudi Arabia with President Donald Trump said the system, which was last tested in February, has a shorter range than the missiles launched in North tests.

An official from South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile appeared to be similar to a mid-range solid-fuel missile that North Korea fired in February.

The missile fired yesterday reached a maximum altitude of Korea’s most recent 560km (347 miles), said the official.

In February, North Korea used a launcher truck to fire a solid-fuel missile that it calls the Pukguksong(Polaris)-2,aland-basedversion of a submarine-launched missile the country revealed earlier.

That missile travelled about 500 km before crashing into the sea, according to officials.

The February launch, the North’s first missile test after Donald Trump took office, alarmed neighbours because solid-fuel missiles can be fired more quickly than liquid-fuel missiles, which need to be fuelled before launch and require a larger number of vehicles, including fuel trucks, that could be spotted by satellites.

The launch came a week after North Korea successfully tested a new midrange missile it said could carry a nuclear warhead.

Under dictator Kim Jong Un, North Korea has been aggressively pursuing a decades-long goal of putting a nuclear warhead on an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the US.

North Korea conducted two nuclear tests last year alone in pursuit of nuclear weapons small enough to fit on its missiles.