Per Japan’s Defence Ministry, North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile on Wednesday, opening the door to another potential conflict with the United States and its allies. The missile flew for more than 70 minutes.
A few minutes longer than the flight times of North Korean missiles tested in March and April of this year is the 74-minute flying time. Both of those were ICBMs, which could reach all of the United States.
According to Japan’s Defence Ministry, the missile fired on Wednesday covered a distance of 1,000 kilometres (621 miles) and a height of more than 6,000 kilometres (3,700 miles).
Flight times give an indication of a missile’s range. North Korea tests most of its missiles on a highly lofted trajectory so they splash down in nearby waters. If they were fired on a flatter trajectory that would be used in an actual attack, the flight time shows how far they can go.
Japan’s Coast Guard said earlier the missile was launched at 9:59 a.m. local time and fell into the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea, at 11:15 a.m., citing the Ministry of Defense.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol held an emergency National Security Council meeting in Lithuania on Wednesday morning in response to the missile launch, Yoon’s press office said in a statement. Yoon is in Vilnius to attend the NATO summit.
Wednesday’s launch comes after Pyongyang earlier this week threatened to shoot down US military reconnaissance planes that fly over nearby waters in the East Sea.
Kim Yo Jong, a senior North Korean official and sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, accused a US spy plane of entering the North’s exclusive economic zone at least eight times on Monday, according to a statement Tuesday from North Korea’s state news agency KCNA.
“In case of repeated illegal intrusion, the US forces will experience a very critical flight,” Kim warned in the statement.
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The missile launch and fiery rhetoric, while not unusual for Pyongyang, come amid heightened tensions as Washington and Seoul ramp up their defense cooperation and the leaders of South Korea, Japan and the US are in Lithuania for a NATO summit, where North Korea was on the agenda.
A communique from the NATO meeting on Tuesday urged North Korea to abandoned its ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs, which are in violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions banning them.
“We call on (North Korea) to accept the repeated offers of dialogue put forward by all parties concerned, including Japan, the United States, and the Republic of Korea,” the communique said.
But North Korea has shown no signs that it is willing to engage in negotiations with Washington or Seoul.
“Kim Yo Jong’s bellicose statement against US surveillance aircraft is part of a North Korean pattern of inflating external threats to rally domestic support and justify weapons tests,” said Leif-Eric Easley, associate professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.
“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.”
Chun In-bum, a former lieutenant general in the South Korean Army, said the missile test and shootdown threats coming in quick succession shows how North Korea operates.
“The fact that North Korea gave such a warning (of a shootdown) seems that it issued such a statement to increase tension and focus our attention elsewhere rather than actually shooting a US surveillance plane down,” Chun said.
Last month, tens of thousands of North Koreans marched in anti-US rallies in Pyongyang, marking the 73rd anniversary of the start of the Korean War. The participants denounced the US as “Destroyer of peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula” and warned of nuclear war, according to KCNA.
Meanwhile, South Korea, the US and Japan have been holding joint and trilateral military exercises aimed at deterring any North Korean military threat.
This is a developing story and will be updated.