North Korea’s leader says longest ever ICBM test is ‘appropriate military action’ against enemies

Jack Kim and Kaori Kaneko

SEOUL/TOKYO (Reuters) – North Korea said it test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile on Thursday, upgrading what it called “the world’s most powerful strategic weapon,” as Seoul warned that Pyongyang could receive missile technology from Russia for help in the war in Ukraine.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said the test was a warning to enemies who threatened the country’s security, state news agency KCNA reported.

“The test fire is an appropriate military action that fully meets the purpose of informing adversaries who have recently deliberately escalated the situation in the region and threatened the security of our republic of our will to counter,” Kim was quoted as saying. from KCNA.

The show of muscle comes amid international outrage and growing alarm over what the US and others say is North Korea’s deployment of 11,000 troops in Russia – 3,000 of them near the western front lines with Ukraine.

The launch drew swift condemnation from South Korea, Japan and the United States.

A day earlier, Seoul cited military intelligence that suggested North Korea could test-launch an intercontinental ballistic missile or conduct a seventh nuclear test during the U.S. presidential election on Tuesday in an effort to draw attention to its growing military might.

Shin Seung-ki, head of North Korea’s armed forces research division at the state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analysis, said the launch was likely to test the improved launch characteristics of an existing intercontinental ballistic missile – possibly with help from Russia.

“North Korea will want to continue receiving this kind of assistance because it saves time and money while improving productivity and improving the stability of the weapons system,” he said.

It could also be Pyongyang’s response to pressure from its engagement with Russia, Shin said.

“The intention may be to show that he will not give in to pressure, that he will respond to force with force, and also to try to have some influence on the US presidential election.”

NEW RECORDS

The launch early Thursday was the North’s longest ballistic missile test with a flight time of 87 minutes, according to South Korea.

KCNA said the test set new records for its missile capabilities.

The missile took off on a sharply elevated trajectory from an area near the North Korean capital and landed about 200 km (125 miles) west of the Japanese island of Okushiri, near Hokkaido.

According to the Japanese government, it reached an altitude of 7,000 km (4,350 mi) and flew a distance of 1,000 km.

The so-called elevated trajectory of the projectile, flying at a steep angle, is designed to test its thrust and stability at distances much shorter than the design range, partly for safety and to avoid the political fallout of sending the missile far into the Pacific Ocean. .

North Korea’s latest intercontinental ballistic missile, named the Hwasong-18, was tested in December 2023. Fueled with solid fuel and launched from a road launcher, it was also launched at a steep angle and flew for 73 minutes, representing a potential flight range. 15,000 km on a normal trajectory.

This is the distance that any part of the mainland United States is accessible.

On Thursday, South Korea announced new controls on the export of materials needed by North Korea to build solid-fuel missiles.

Asked about the missile launch, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said China “has always believed that peace and stability and the promotion of a political solution to the peninsula issue are in the common interests of all parties.”

Pyongyang’s latest test came just hours after US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his South Korean counterpart Kim Yong-hyun met in Washington to condemn North Korea’s deployment of troops to Russia.

Neither Moscow nor Pyongyang have directly acknowledged the deployment, but Russia’s UN ambassador Vasyl Nebenzia on Wednesday questioned why its allies such as North Korea could not help Moscow in its war against Ukraine when Western countries claim the right to help Kiev.

South Korea has said the deployment directly threatens its security, as North Korea will gain valuable combat experience in modern warfare and is likely to be rewarded by Moscow with “technology transfers” in areas such as tactical nuclear weapons, intercontinental ballistic missiles, ballistic missile submarines and military intelligence satellites.

(Reporting by Jack Kim, Joyce Lee in Seoul, Kaori Kaneko, Mariko Katsumura, Chang-Ran Kim in Tokyo, Phil Stewart and Rama Ayoub in Washington, Colin Howe in Beijing; Editing by Lincoln Fist, Ed Davis and Tomasz Janowski)