N. Korea launches new type of ICBM
SEOUL— North Korea launched a new type of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on Wednesday, indicating an effort to perfect the element of surprise and to obtain maximum attention in the United States. The firing of Hwasong-15 is a clear message of defiance aimed at the Trump administration, which had just restored the North to a US list of terror sponsors.—
SEOUL— After two and a half months of relative peace, North Korea launched its most powerful weapon yet early Wednesday, claiming a new type of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that some observers believe could put Washington and the entire eastern US seaboard within range.
North Korea said in a special televised announcement hours after the launch that it had successfully fired what it called the Hwasong-15, a new nuclear-capable ICBM “significantly more” powerful than its previously tested long-range weapon.
After watching the successful launch of the new type ICBM, North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, declared with pride that “now we have finally realized the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force, the cause of building a rocket power,” according to a statement read by a television presenter.
Outside governments and analysts backed up North Korea’s claim to a jump in missile capability.
A resumption of Pyongyang’s torrid testing pace in pursuit of its goal of a viable arsenal of nuclear-tipped missiles that can hit the US mainland had been widely expected, but the apparent power and suddenness of the new test still jolted the Korean Peninsula and Washington.
The launch at 3:17 a.m. local time and midday in the US capital indicated an effort to perfect the element of surprise and to obtain maximum attention in the United States.
The firing is a clear message of defiance aimed at the Trump administration, which had just restored North Korea to a US list of terror sponsors.
The missile test also ruins nascent diplomatic efforts, raises fears of war or a preemptive US strike and casts a deeper shadow over the security of the Winter Olympics early next year in South Korea.
A rattled Seoul responded by almost immediately launching three of its own missiles in a show of force.
South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in expressed worry that North Korea’s growing missile threat could force the United States to attack the North before it mastered a nuclear-tipped long-range missile, which according to experts might be imminent.
“If North Korea completes a ballistic missile that could reach from one continent to another, the situation can spiral out of control,” Moon said at an emergency meeting in Seoul, according to his office.
“We must stop a situation where North Korea miscalculates and threatens us with nuclear weapons or where the United States considers a preemptive strike,” he added.
Moon, a liberal who has been forced into a more hawkish stance by a stream of North Korean weapons tests, has repeatedly declared that there can be no US attack on Pyongyang without Seoul’s approval, but many here worry that Washington may act without South Korean input.
Diplomacy breaker
The launch is North Korea’s first since it fired an intermediate-range missile over Japan on Sept. 15, andmayhave broken any efforts at diplomacymeant to end Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions.
US officials have sporadically floated the idea of direct talks with North Korea if it maintains restraint.
The missile also appears to improve on North Korea’s past launches.
If flown on a standard trajectory, instead of Wednesday’s lofted angle, the missile would have a range of more than 13,000 kilometers, according to US scientist David Wright, a physicist who closely tracks North Korea’s missile and nuclear programs.
“Such a missile would have more than enough range to reach Washington, and in fact any part of the continental United States,” Wright wrote in a blog post for the Union for Concerned Scientists.
Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said the missile landed inside of Japan’s special economic zone in the Sea of Japan, about 250 kilometers west of Aomori on the northern part of Japan’s main island of Honshu.
Unknown: payload
A big unknown, however, is the missile’s payload. If, as expected, it carried a light mock warhead, then its effective range would have been shorter, analysts said.
An ICBM test is considered particularly provocative, and indications that it flew higher than past launches suggest progress by Pyongyang in developing a weapon of mass destruction that could strike the US mainland.