N. Korea fires new missile

Latest launch comes days after a new leader took office in the South

SEOUL: North Korea fired a ballistic missile in defiance of calls to rein in its weapons programme, South Korean and US officials said, days after a new leader took office in the South, pledging to engage it in dialogue.

The US Pacific Command said it was assessing the type of missile but it was “not consistent with an intercontinental ballistic missile”.

Japanese Defence Minister Tomomi Inada said the missile could be of a new type.

The missile flew 700km and reached an altitude of more than 2,000km, according to officials in South Korea and Japan, further and higher than an intermediate-range missile North Korea successfully tested in February from the same region of Kusong, northwest of its capital, Pyongyang.

North Korea is widely believed to be developing an intercontinental missile tipped with a nuclear weap- on that is capable of reaching the United States.

US President Donald Trump has vowed not to let that happen.

Experts said yesterday’s test showed a considerably longer range than missiles North Korea had pre- viously tested, meaning it had likely made improvements since its February test.

The reported altitude would indicate the missile was launched at a high trajectory.

David Wright, co-director of the UCS Global Security Programme and a missile expert, said if the missile had been fired at a standard trajectory, it would have had a maximum range of about 4,500km.

Kim Dong-yub, Kyungnam University’s Institute of Far Eastern Studies in Seoul, said he estimated a standard trajectory firing would give it a range of 6,000km, meaning it would be capable of reaching Hawaii.

An intercontinental ballistic missile is considered to have a range of more than 6,000km.

Japan said the missile flew for 30 minutes before dropping into the sea between North Korea’s east coast and Japan.

The North has consistently testfired missiles in that direction.

“If that report ... is correct, then the launch may indeed represent a new missile with a long range,” said Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics, referring the estimated altitude of more than 2,000km.

“It is definitely concerning,” McDowell said.

In Washington, the White House said Trump “cannot imagine Russia is pleased” with the test as the missile landed closer to Russia than to Japan.

“With the missile impacting so close to Russian soil – in fact, closer to Russia than to Japan – the President cannot imagine that Russia is pleased,” it said.

The launch served as a call for all nations to implement stronger sanctions against North Korea, it added. — Reuters