Tensions rise as N. Korea fires missile
It flew 500 miles and hit unusually high altitude
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea on Sunday test-launched a ballistic missile that flew for half an hour and reached an unusually high altitude before landing in the Sea of Japan, the South Korean, Japanese and U.S. militaries said.
The launch, which Tokyo said could be of a new type of missile, is a direct challenge to the new South Korean president elected four days ago and comes as U.S., Japanese and European navies gather for joint war games in the Pacific.
It wasn’t immediately clear what type of ballistic missile was launched, the seventh such firing this year, although the U.S. Pacific Command said “the flight is not consistent with an intercontinental ballistic missile.”
Japanese officials, however, said the missile flew for about 30 minutes, traveling about 500 miles and reaching an altitude of 1,240 miles — a flight pattern that could indicate a new type of missile.
David Wright, co-director of the Global Security Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the missile could have a range of about 2,800 miles if flown on a standard, instead of a lofted, trajectory — considerably longer than Pyongyang’s current missiles.
The White House said in a statement that North Korea has been “a flagrant menace for far too long,” and that South Korea and Japan have been watching the situation closely with the United States.
Whatever the type of missile, the launch forces the new South Korean leader, Moon Jae-in, to put dealing with Pyongyang, at least for now, above the domestic economic agenda he’d made a priority during his early days in office.
Moon, who favors a softer approach to the North than his conservative predecessors, strongly condemned the launch during an emergency national security meeting, calling it a clear violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions and a serious challenge to international peace and security, according to senior presidential secretary Yoon Young-chan.