Seoul reports a North Korean ICBM launch off east coast

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea launched what South Korea called an intercontinental ballistic missile off its east coast on Saturday, a day after vowing to take “unprecedentedly persistent and strong” counteractions against the joint military drills that the United States and South Korea plan for this spring.

The launch was the North’s first missile test since New Year’s Day, when it fired a short-range ballistic missile, and its first ICBM test since Nov. 18, when it fired the Hwasong-17, the North’s most powerful long-range missile.

So far, all of the North’s ICBMs have been launched at a deliberately steep angle, so that they fly high into space rather than over Japan toward the Pacific. But flight data from the Hwasong-17 test indicated that if launched at a normal angle, the missile theoretically could reach the United States.

The South Korean military said that the most recent ICBM was launched Saturday from near the international airport in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, and flew about 560 miles to the east. Because this missile, like previous ones, was fired at a lofted angle, it fell into waters west of the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, according to both Japanese and South Korean officials.

Japan’s defense minister, Yasukazu Hamada, told reporters that the North Korean missile had reached an altitude of roughly 3,540 miles. If fired at a normal ICBM trajectory, the missile could have traveled about 8,700 miles, enough to reach anywhere in the entire continental United States, he said.

On Saturday, South Korea condemned the launch as a “clear violation” of U.N. Security Council resolutions that ban the country from testing ballistic missiles and nuclear devices.

With North Korea continuing its nuclear and missile brinkmanship, Washington and Seoul agreed to expand their annual military exercises this year to strengthen their combined deterrence against the North.

One such exercise, a tabletop drill, is scheduled for Wednesday at the Pentagon.

Afterward, delegates from both sides are to visit an American naval base with nuclear submarines, as Washington seeks to reassure South Korea of its intention to defend it using all means, including nuclear, under the so-called extended deterrence doctrine.

The allies are also scheduled to hold a large combined field exercise in South Korea in midMarch.

North Korea denounces such drills as a rehearsal for invasion.