SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea launched a new intercontinental ballistic missile on Thursday, in its first test in nearly a year of a weapon designed to threaten the US mainland and which comes days before the US election.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered the missile test and was at the launch site, calling the launch “an appropriate military action” to show North Korea’s determination to respond to moves by its enemies that threatened the North’s security, according to its Defense Ministry . .

The United States, South Korea and Japan also identified the weapon as an ICBM and condemned the launch as raising tensions. The launch came as Washington warned that North Korean troops in Russian uniforms were heading toward Ukraine, likely to augment Russian forces and join the war.

North Korea confirmed the launch hours after its neighbors detected the firing of what they suspected was a new, more agile weapon aimed at the US mainland.

“I affirm that the DPRK will never change its line of strengthening its nuclear forces,” Kim said, according to a North Korean Defense Ministry statement carried by state media. DPRK stands for Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the official name of North Korea.

Korean Central News Agency / KCNA via KNS

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KCNA through KNS

South Korea’s chiefs of staff said North Korea may have tested a new long-range, solid-fueled ballistic missile. Missiles with embedded solid propellants are easier to move and conceal and can be launched faster than liquid propellant weapons.

JCS spokesman Lee Sung Joon said the launch was likely timed to coincide with the US election in an attempt to bolster North Korea’s future bargaining power. He said the North Korean missile was launched at a high angle, apparently to avoid neighboring countries.

Japanese Defense Minister General Nakatani told reporters that the missile’s flight time of 86 minutes and its maximum altitude of more than 7,000 kilometers (4,350 miles) exceeded the corresponding data from previous North Korean missile tests. Lee, the South Korean military spokesman, said South Korea had a similar assessment of Thursday’s launch.

KCNA said the flight characteristics of this launch exceeded those recorded for its previous missile launches, but did not elaborate on the differences.

US National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett called the launch “a flagrant violation” of several UN Security Council resolutions that “needlessly heightens tensions and risks destabilizing the security situation in the region.” Savett said the US will take all necessary measures to ensure the security of the US homeland and its South Korean and Japanese allies.

Both South Korea and Japan condemned the North Korean launch as a threat to international peace and said they were coordinating closely with the US on the latest North Korean weapons test. Lee said South Korea and the US are planning “sufficient” bilateral military exercises and trilateral exercises involving Japan in response to North Korean threats.

Korean Central News Agency / KCNA via KNS

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KCNA through KNS

Lee said the missile could have been fired from a 12-axle launch vehicle, the North’s largest mobile launch platform he unveiled in September. The unveiling of the vehicle prompted speculation that North Korea may be developing an ICBM that is larger than existing ones.

North Korea has made advances in its missile technologies in recent years, but many foreign experts believe the country has yet to acquire a functioning nuclear-armed missile capable of striking the US mainland. They say North Korea likely has short-range missiles that can launch nuclear strikes across South Korea.

One of the technological hurdles North Korea still faces is whether its weapons will be able to survive the harsh conditions of re-entry into the atmosphere. South Korean officials and experts have previously said North Korea may test and launch an ICBM at a normal angle to test this capability.

Lee said a high-angle launch like Thursday’s test cannot examine the rocket’s re-entry vehicle technology. He said more analysis is needed to find out why North Korea did not conduct a launch on a standard trajectory on Thursday.

South Korea’s military intelligence agency told lawmakers on Wednesday that North Korea is close to testing a long-range missile capable of reaching the United States and is also likely to have completed preparations for the de- the seventh nuclear test.

North Korea last tested an intercontinental ballistic missile in December 2023, when it launched the solid-fuel Hwasong-18.

Korean Central News Agency / KCNA via KNS

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KCNA through KNS

Over the past two years, Kim has used Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a window to step up weapons tests and threats, while expanding military cooperation with Moscow. South Korea, the US and others have recently accused North Korea of ​​sending thousands of troops to support Russia’s fight against Ukraine. They said North Korea had already shipped artillery, missiles and other convection weapons to Russia.

The possible participation of North Korea in the war in Ukraine would mark a serious escalation. South Korea, the US and their partners are also worried about what North Korea might get from Russia in exchange for joining Russia’s war against Ukraine. In addition to the salaries of his soldiers, experts say Kim Jong Un likely hopes to obtain high-tech Russian technology to improve his nuclear-capable missiles and build a reliable space surveillance system. Kim may also want Russian fighter jets and help modernize North Korea’s conventional weapons.

On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said North Korean troops wearing Russian uniforms and carrying Russian equipment were moving toward Ukraine, in what he called a dangerous and destabilizing development. Austin said the “probability is quite high” that Russia would use the troops in combat.

Austin spoke at a news conference in Washington with South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol last week raised the possibility of supplying weapons to Ukraine, while stressing that his government “will not stand idly by” over North Korea’s reported troop deployment.

South Korea said on Wednesday that North Korea had sent more than 11,000 troops to Russia and that more than 3,000 of them had been moved close to battlefields in western Russia.

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