Status: 11/18/2022 5:55 a.m
North Korea is apparently continuing its missile tests: According to information from South Korea and Japan, an ICBM was fired in the direction of the Sea of Japan. North Korea would have violated a UN resolution again.
North Korea has apparently fired a nuclear-capable ICBM, South Korea said. The projectile probably hit the sea in Japan’s exclusive economic zone.
First, the South Korean military general staff spoke of a ballistic missile fired from the Sunan region in the direction of the Sea of Japan. South Korea later clarified the information: It was probably an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). Japan also stated that such a projectile probably fell in the sea in its own exclusive economic zone west of the island of Hokkaido. Nothing is known about damage to aircraft or ships.
ICBMs include missiles with a range of at least 5500 kilometers. UN resolutions ban the North Korean regime from testing any range ballistic missile capable of carrying one or more nuclear warheads.
“Provocations are unacceptable”
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who is in Thailand to attend the APEC summit, strongly condemned the alleged missile launch. North Korea’s provocations are “unacceptable,” he was quoted as saying in the Japanese media. Japan has already made its protest clear to the North Korean government.
The Japanese Defense Minister also sharply criticized North Korea. The country has fired missiles at an unprecedented rate this year and is significantly escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula. According to him, the long-range rocket flew 1,000 kilometers and reached a maximum altitude of around 6,000 kilometers. With such a reach, it could have struck the entire US mainland.
South Korea’s presidential office said it had called an emergency security meeting to discuss the missile test.
The number of missile tests is apparently increasing
North Korea had recently intensified its missile tests in response to joint military exercises by South Korea and the United States. Only on Thursday did the country fire another short-range missile. At the beginning of the month, North Korea had already reported tests of at least four short-range ballistic missiles and an apparently failed test of an ICBM.
At the beginning of November, the USA and South Korea completed a joint military maneuver called “Vigilant Storm”. North Korea’s Foreign Minister Choe Son Hue then threatened “stronger” military reactions in response to increased military cooperation between South Korea, the United States and Japan.