Urgent meeting after N Korea tests missile

SEOUL: North Korea said today it had successfully testfired a new type of medium- to long-range ballistic missile, claiming further advancement in a weapons programme it is pursuing in violation of UN resolutions.

North Korea fired the ballistic missile on a high arc into the sea early yesterday, the first test of US President Donald Trump’s vow to get tough on an isolated regime that tested nuclear devices and ballistic missiles last year at an unprecedented rate.

The North’s state-run KCNA news agency said leader Kim Jong Un supervised the test of the Pukguksong-2, a new type of strategic weapon capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

The US, Japan and South Korea requested urgent UN Security Council consultations on the test, with a meeting expected this afternoon, an official in the US mission to the UN said.

KCNA said the missile was fired at a high angle in consideration of the safety of neighbouring countries. A South Korean military source said the missile reached an altitude of 550km.

It flew a distance of about 500km, landing off the east coast of the Korean peninsula, towards Japan.

The missile was propelled by a solid fuel engine and was an upgraded, extended-range version of its submarine-launched ballistic missile that was tested successfully in August, according to KCNA.

South Korea’s military said the missile had been launched using a “cold-eject” system, whereby it is initially lifted by compressed gas before flying under the power of its rocket, a system used for submarine-launched missiles.

North Korea’s pursuit of large solid-fuelled missiles was “a very concerning development”, said Jonathan McDow- ell of the Harvard Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics.

“This new rocket is the type that we should be much more worried about. Solid fuel rockets can be launched at short notice without much preparation. Large solid fuel motors are difficult to make work correctly so this is indeed a significant advance by North Korea.”

In addition to launching more quickly, solid fuel engines boost the power of ballistic rockets. – Reuters

PICTURE: EPA North Korean Scud-B Tactical Ballistic Missile at the Korean War Memorial Museum in Seoul, South Korea. According to reports quoting South Korea’s military, North Korea test-fired an unidentified type of ballistic missile yesterday.