North Korea said on Thursday it had successfully tested its new intercontinental ballistic missile, state media reported, as Pyongyang expressed fury after threatening to shoot down US spy planes that allegedly violated its airspace.
The report by the official KCNA news agency said the Hwasong-18 – a new type of allegedly solid-fueled ballistic missile that was said to have been fired by the North only once before, in April – traveled 1 001 kilometers at a maximum altitude of 6,648 km before plunging into the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan.
The flight time of around 70 minutes is also similar to some of North Korea’s previous ICBM launches, experts said.
The launch, which KCNA said was guided by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, was a “great explosion” that shook “the entire planet”, according to the report.
Kim also promised that “a series of stronger military offensives” would be launched until the United States and South Korea changed their policies toward the North, KCNA said.
The confirmation of the launch – which South Korea’s military announced on Wednesday – came as relations between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest levels, with diplomacy at a standstill and Kim calling for a increased development of weapons, including tactical nuclear weapons.
In response, Seoul and Washington stepped up security cooperation, vowing that Pyongyang would face a nuclear response and the “end” of its current government if it were ever to use its nuclear weapons against allies.
The launch “is a serious provocation that undermines the peace and security of the Korean peninsula” and violates United Nations sanctions against Pyongyang, the South Korean military said, calling on North Korea to end its such actions.
The United Nations, the United States and their allies, including France, have also strongly condemned it.
“This launch is a brazen violation of several UN Security Council resolutions and unnecessarily heightens tensions and risks destabilizing the security situation in the region,” the spokesperson for the US National Security Council said. , Adam Hodge, in a press release.
Pyongyang also launched a Hwasong-15 in February, which flew a similar 989 kilometers.
– “Provocative” US actions –
Wednesday’s launch came after North Korea on Monday accused a US spy plane of violating its airspace and condemned Washington’s plans to deploy a nuclear-launched submarine near the Korean peninsula.
A spokesperson for North Korea’s Ministry of National Defense says the US has ‘intensified espionage activity beyond wartime level’, citing ‘provocative’ spy plane flights for eight days consecutive this month.
“There is no guarantee that such a shocking accident as the downing of the US Air Force strategic reconnaissance aircraft will not happen in the East Sea of Korea,” the carrier added. word.
Kim’s powerful sister, Kim Yo Jong, said a US spy plane violated eastern airspace twice on Monday, according to a separate statement.
Kim Yo Jong said North Korea would not respond directly to US reconnaissance activities outside the country’s exclusive economic zone, but warned it would take ‘decisive action’ if its maritime military demarcation line was crossed .
The United States said in April that one of its nuclear-armed ballistic submarines would visit a South Korean port for the first time in decades, without specifying an exact date.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has stepped up defense cooperation with Washington in response, holding joint military exercises with advanced stealth jets and long-range heavy bombers.
Yoon is due to attend a NATO summit in Lithuania this week, seeking to strengthen cooperation in the face of growing threats from North Korea.
bur-st/dw