North Korea Launches Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Into East Sea
An intercontinental ballistic missile. X/ @AsgardIntel
October 31, 2024 Hour: 11:38 am
The ICBM launch demonstrates the North Korean determination to counterattack, President Kim Jong-un said.
On Thursday, North Korean President Kim Jong-un confirmed a new launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) toward the East Sea. This weapons test was condemned by South Korea and Japan.
RELATED:
North Korea Dynamites Roads Connecting to its Southern Neighbor
The launch demonstrates the “determination to counterattack” and is an “appropriate military measure aimed at informing rivals who have caused an intentional escalation of the regional situation and recently posed a threat to national security,” Kim said in a statement reported by the KCNA agency.
He also stated that North Korea “will never change its strategy of developing its nuclear capabilities,” in a note in which a North Korean official also indicated that the missile tested today was an ICBM.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said the missile followed a parabolic or nearly vertical trajectory—which allows it to reach a greater altitude and cover more distance than usual—and indicated that it could be “a new type of long-range, solid-fuel ballistic missile.”
Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani stated that the missile flew for one hour and 26 minutes before falling, making it the longest flight time of a missile launched by Pyongyang. It reached a maximum altitude of 7,000 kilometers and covered a distance of around 1,000 kilometers from its launch point before falling into waters north of Japan, reaching .
The launch took place just hours after a meeting in Washington between U.S. and South Korean defense ministers, Lloyd Austin and Kim Yong-hyun, who condemned the deployment of North Korean troops to Russia. Equipped with Russian uniforms and weaponry, the North Korean soldiers are heading to the front lines of the war in Ukraine, according to Austin.
Previously, South Korean intelligence services indicated that Pyongyang has completed preparations to conduct a new nuclear test and an intercontinental ballistic missile launch. They warned that North Korea might carry out one of these weapons tests imminently, possibly close to the U.S. presidential election.
teleSUR/ JF Source: EFE