North Korea conducted a missile test with its longest ever flight time off its east coast on Wednesday, following a threat made to the US earlier this week.
The missile flew for 74 minutes to an altitude of 6,000 km and range of 1,000 km, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary Hirokazu Matusno said, in what would be the longest ever flight time for a North Korean missile.
The launch came after heated complaints from North Korea in recent days, accusing American spy planes of violating airspace in its economic zones, condemning a recent visit to South Korea by an American nuclear-powered cruise missile submarine, and promising to take steps in reaction.
North Korea’s Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong Un, said on Tuesday a US military spy plane had entered North Korea’s Exclusive Economic Zone eight times.
She warned US forces would face a “very critical flight” if they continued “illegal intrusion”, repeating an accusation North Korea made on Monday that the US had violated its airspace by conducting surveillance flights.
North Korea warned that such flights may be shot down.
In April, North Korea test fired its first ever solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and conducted a failed attempt to launch its first-ever spy satellite on a new launch vehicle. UN Security Council resolutions ban North Korea’s use of ballistic missile technology, including for satellite launches.
Analysts believe the North‘s ICBMs are enough to strike targets anywhere in the United States, and the country likely has developed nuclear warheads that can fit on rockets.
Wednesday’s missile launch came as leaders of South Korea and Japan were set to meet on the sidelines of a Nato summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, to discuss threats including nuclear-armed North Korea.
Japan’s Coast Guard said what was believed to be a ballistic missile appeared to have landed as of mid-morning. It had earlier predicted the projectile would fall outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone, and around 550 km (340 miles) east of the Korean peninsula.
Leif-Eric Easley, an international studies professor at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, said North Korea‘s recent statements against US surveillance aircraft was part of a pattern of inflating external threats to rally domestic support and justify weapons tests.
“Pyongyang also times its shows of force to disrupt what it perceives as diplomatic coordination against it, in this case, South Korea and Japan’s leaders meeting during the NATO summit.”
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, in Lithuania to attend the Nato summit, convened an emergency national security council meeting to discuss the launch and vowed to use the summit to call for strong international solidarity to confront such threats.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who is also in Lithuania, ordered his staff to gather information and stay alert to prepare for unpredicted events, according to the prime minister’s office.
Mr Kishida and Mr Yoon are expected to meet on Wednesday.
“We will respond in close cooperation with the international community,” Japan’s chief cabinet secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told a news conference.
He said the launch threatened the peace and stability both of the region and the international community, and that Japan had lodged a protest through diplomatic channels in Beijing.
