New North Korea missile test puts all of US in range

Washington vows ‘all necessary measures’ to secure its territory

North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile that landed near Japanese waters yesterday in its second major weapons test this month that showed a potential ability to launch nuclear strikes on all of the US mainland.

The United States vowed to take “all necessary measures” to guarantee the safety of its territory and its allies South Korea and Japan. Vice-President Kamala Harris met with the leaders of those countries and of Australia, Canada and New Zealand who are attending a regional forum in Bangkok to discuss the launch.

“We again call for North Korea to stop further unlawful, destabilising acts. On behalf of the United States, I reaffirm our ironclad commitment to our Indo-Pacific alliances,” Harris said at the start of the meeting.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected the ICBM launch from North Korea’s capital region around 10:15am.

Japanese Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada said that depending on the weight of a potential warhead, the missile had a range exceeding 15,000 kilometres, “in which case it could cover the entire mainland United States.”

AFP A news broadcast touches on the latest North Korean ■ missile test at a Seoul railway station. The missile is believed to have fallen in Japan’s exclusive economic waters.