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North Korea test fires ‘new’ inter-continental ballistic missile
The country's leader, Kim Jong Un, vowed to expand North Korea's “nuclear war deterrent” while preparing for a “long-standing confrontation” with the United States.
Pyongyang: North Korea Friday said that it has test-fired its biggest intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
The country's leader, Kim Jong Un, vowed to expand North Korea's “nuclear war deterrent” while preparing for a “long-standing confrontation” with the United States.
Kim ordered the test because of the "daily-escalating military tension in and around the Korean peninsula" and the "inevitability of the long-standing confrontation with the US imperialists accompanied by the danger of a nuclear war," state news agency KCNA reported.
"The strategic forces of the DPRK are fully ready to thoroughly curb and contain any dangerous military attempts of the U.S. imperialists," Kim said while personally overseeing the launch, according to KCNA.
Dubbed as Hwasong-17, was fired at a high angle to avoid the territorial waters of neighbours, reached a maximum altitude of 6,248 kilometres and travelled 1,090 kilometres during a 67-minute flight before landing in waters between North Korea and Japan, Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency said.
Todays’ missile is North Korea's longest-range weapon and, by some estimates, the world’s biggest road-mobile ballistic missile system. The launch was its first full-range test.
According to analysts, its long range and massive size also suggest North Korea plans to tip it with multiple warheads that could hit several targets or deploy decoys to confuse defenders.
It came a day after the militaries of South Korea and Japan said they detected Pyongyang launching an ICBM in its first long-range test since 2017.