North Korea raises tension after long-range ballistic missile test

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• North Korea fired a new long-range missile on Thursday, according to South Korea and Japan’s militaries.
• This could be the rogue nation’s first intercontinental ballistic missile testing since 2017.
• Experts say that the nation’s move meant to remind the international community to recognize North Korea as a nuclear power. 

North Korea test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) for the first time since 2017, South Korea and Japan’s military said Thursday. The move incites new tensions with the United States and its allies.

Condemning the test, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said North Korea used a new kind of ICBM. He called it an “unforgivable outrage” while the world is focused on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“These series of actions taken by North Korea threaten the peace and security of our country, the region and the international community, and they are absolutely unacceptable,” Kishida said while in Brussels. He is attending the NATO meeting with other world leaders including President Joe Biden.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff also believed the missile fired was an ICBM. In response, the South Korean military test-fired multiple ground, sea and air missiles into the sea between Japan and the Korean Peninsula.

President Moon Jae-in of South Korea condemned the launch as “a serious danger to the international community as well as the Korean Peninsula amid the war in Ukraine.”

Experts say North Korea’s latest test-firing is meant to call the attention of the international community and recognize Kim Jong Un’s regime as a nuclear power.

North Korea is banned from testing ballistic missiles under United Nations Security Council resolutions.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki also condemned the test. She said the Biden administration was assessing the situation while coordinating with allies.

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said the missile was launched toward the sea and landed about 90 miles west of Oshima Peninsula on northern Hokkaido Island. That’s within Japan’s exclusive economic zone.

Matsuno added the missile was in the air for approximately 71 minutes, flew a distance of 680 miles and reached more than 3,725 miles in altitude.

In November 2017, North Korea tested an ICBM that stayed in the air for 53 minutes, a distance of 590 miles and elevation of about 2,780 miles. North Korea claimed then that the Hwasong-15 missile could reach anywhere in the United States.

On March 16, North Korea launched a missile from the site of Pyongyang’s international airport which appeared to explode shortly after liftoff.

According to North Korean state media, Kim Jong Un said that the two missile tests were part of a plan to launch reconnaissance satellites to monitor military action by the U.S. and its allies.

Source: NBC News