North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that landed in Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) waters today, sending a strong message on the eve of Seoul and Washington launching joint military drills.
The launch comes after Pyongyang, which in 2022 carried out a record number of missile launches, has gone more than a month and a half without carrying out a single weapons test, a period without North Korean activity in this area that has not been seen for a long time. on the peninsula.
His last test dated January 1, when just three hours into the new year, he fired a short-range projectile from a large multiple rocket launcher.
But already the day before, North Korea launched the first blunt message since the aforementioned test, threatening an “unprecedented” response to the annual spring military maneuvers, called “Freedom shield”, which the South and USA, which also next week will carry out a theoretical exercise that simulates a nuclear attack by the regime.
And today the regime appears to have sent a dire warning by launching an ICBM that has shown the potential to reach the entire US territory.
A NEW TYPE OF MISSILE?
Pending more information on the projectile, the exact typology of which Pyongyang may reveal tomorrow, analysts and governments are today trying to establish whether what was fired is a new type of ICBM like the one the regime paraded for the first time ten days ago during the festivities of the 75th anniversary of his army.
Shown at that parade appears to be a new solid-fuel ICBM, a more efficient type of missile (solid fuel makes loading and storage safer and makes projectile deployment easier) that North Korea set out to develop after approving a plan. of weapons modernization in 2021.
According to the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), today’s launch was carried out at around 5:22 p.m. (8:22 GMT) from the Sunan area, where Pyongyang International Airport is located and from where the regime has launched in more once the Hwasong-17, his most potentially long-range ICBM in his arsenal.
“The North Korean ballistic missile was launched at a very wide angle and fell into the East Sea (the name given to the Sea of Japan in the two Koreas) after flying about 900 kilometers,” the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) explained in a statement. release.
The Japanese Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, condemned the launch and indicated that the missile, which according to the Japanese Ministry of Defense reached an altitude of about 5,700 kilometers, appears to have fallen within the Japanese special economic zone (SEZ), about 200 kilometers west of the island of Oshima, located southwest of the northern island of Hokkaido.
CAUGHT ON TELEVISION
A NHK Japanese public broadcaster camera located in the nearby town of Hakodate apparently caught fragments of the flaming projectile lighting up the night sky in its reentry phase.
It is estimated that the missile crashed into the water around 6:27 p.m. local time (9:27 GMT), so it would have flown for more than an hour, and the Japanese Defense Minister, Yasukazu Hamada, assured that it could have flown about 14,000 kilometers. if it had been launched with a normal trajectory, enough to reach any region of the planet with the exception of South America.
For its part, the South Korean National Security Council (NSC) met urgently and “strongly” condemned the North Korean test, which it considered to be “a serious violation of UN Security Council resolutions and a serious provocation that increases the tensions on the Korean peninsula and in the region”.
Pyongyang carried out a record number of missile launches last year, around fifty, in many cases in response to joint maneuvers by Seoul and Washington and the deployment of strategic Pentagon assets on the peninsula.
Satellite photos also show that the Punggye-ri nuclear test center (northeast of the country) has been completely rehabilitated for almost a year and is ready to host a new atomic test.
Source: Euronews Español
