South Korea’s chief of staff said the missile, launched from the western inland city of Taechon, flew 600 km (370 miles) cross-country at a maximum height of 60 km (37 miles) before landing in waters off the North’s east coast. Korea. South Korea’s military condemned the North Korean launch as a violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions. “North Korea’s ballistic missile launch is an act of serious provocation that threatens the peace and security of the Korean Peninsula and the international community,” South Korea’s chief of staff said in a statement. South Korea had earlier detected signs that the North was preparing to launch an underwater ballistic missile (SLBM), the president’s office said on Saturday – a weapon Pyongyang last tested in May. The US Indo-Pacific Command said the launch did not pose an “immediate threat to US personnel or territory or to our allies”, but underlined the destabilizing impact of North Korea’s illicit nuclear weapons and missile programmes. Sunday’s launch is the latest in a record burst of weapons tests by nuclear-armed Pyongyang this year, including the launch of a full-range intercontinental ballistic missile. In May, the North fired a short-range ballistic missile from Sinpo, a major shipyard in North Korea. “North Korea launched an unidentified ballistic missile into the East Sea,” Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said early Sunday, without elaborating. Japan’s coast guard also confirmed a possible ballistic missile launch, citing information from Tokyo’s defense ministry. “Boaters please be alert for new information and if you spot foreign objects, do not approach them any closer, but notify the Coast Guard,” the Coast Guard said. Japan’s public broadcaster NHK said the object appeared to have fallen outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone. Commuters at a Seoul train station watch television news about North Korea’s missile launch on Sunday. Photo: Ahn Young-joon/AP South Korea’s hawkish President Yoon Suk-yeol, who took office in May, has pledged to step up joint military exercises with the US after years of failed diplomacy with North Korea under his predecessor. On Friday, the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and ships from its strike group docked in the southern port city of Busan, part of a push by Seoul and Washington to have more US strategic assets operating in the region. Yun is also set to meet with US Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday when she visits Seoul this week, following visits by President Joe Biden in May and US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last month. . The USS Reagan will take part in joint exercises off the east coast of South Korea this month. Washington is Seoul’s key security ally and stations about 28,500 troops in South Korea to protect it from the North. The two countries have long held joint drills, which they insist are purely defensive, but North Korea sees them as rehearsals for an invasion. “Pyongyang could make a show of force while a US aircraft carrier visits South Korea for defense exercises,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul. “But North Korea’s major tests are, above all, part of a long-term campaign to advance offensive military capabilities.” South Korean and US officials have been warning for months that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is preparing to conduct another nuclear test. The reclusive regime has tested nuclear weapons six times since 2006. Its latest and most powerful one in 2017 – which Pyongyang claimed was a hydrogen bomb – had an estimated yield of 250 kilotons. On Wednesday, the North Korea-focused website 38 North said its analysis of commercial satellite imagery showed many barges and other vessels gathered in the eastern port of Shinpo, where North Korea has a large shipyard that builds submarines. The report said the North is likely preparing to launch a new submarine capable of launching ballistic missiles. North Korea has pushed hard to be able to launch nuclear-tipped missiles from submarines. Such weapons would theoretically enhance North Korea’s deterrent power by ensuring retaliation after absorbing a nuclear strike on Earth. The ballistic missile submarines would also add a new maritime threat to the North’s growing collection of land-launched solid-fuel weapons, which are being deployed with the apparent aim of overwhelming missile defense systems in South Korea and Japan. Easley said: “North Korea may delay its seventh nuclear test out of respect for China’s upcoming political conference that Xi Jinping is strictly planning to extend his leadership. “But there are limits to Pyongyang’s restraint.” The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
