North Korea fires another missile
SEOUL, South Korea — In its latest effort to develop its ballistic and nuclear weapons, North Korea fired a medium-range missile Sunday that appeared to be similar to one the country tested earlier this year, U.S. and South Korean officials said.
The rocket was fired from an area near the North Korean county of Pukchang, in South Phyongan Province, and flew eastward about 310 miles, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said. The U.S. Pacific Command said it tracked the missile before it fell into the sea.
White House officials traveling in Saudi Arabia with President Donald Trump said the system that was tested had a shorter range than the missiles fired in North Korea’s most recent tests.
The missile appeared to be similar in range and maximum altitude to the missile North Korea testfired in February, an official
from South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said. The missile launched on Sunday reached an altitude of 347 miles, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing office rules.
The February test involved using a launch truck to fire a solid-fuel missile that North Korea calls the Pukguksong (Polaris)-2, a land-based version of a submarine-launched missile the country revealed earlier. That missile traveled about 300 miles before crashing into the sea,
according to South Korean and U.S. officials.
The February launch, the North’s first missile test after Trump took office, alarmed neighbors because solid-fuel missiles can be fired faster than liquid-fuel missiles, which need to be fueled before launch and require a larger number of vehicles, including fuel trucks. Those vehicles could be spotted by satellites.
In Tokyo, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called the launch a “challenge to the world.”