North Korea test-fires what could be
new kind of longer-range missile
Unidentified missile type could have
a maximum theoretical range of 4,500km on a standard trajectory, says expert
Justin McCurry in Tokyo and agencies
Sunday 14 May 2017 04.17 BST First published on Saturday 13
May 2017 23.31 BST
North Korea has fired what Japan said could be a new type of
missile, in an early diplomatic test for South Korea’s new president, Moon
Jae-in.
Japan did not specify what type of missile was involved in
Sunday’s launch, which came after Pyongyang indicated it was open to talks with
the South on its ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programmes.
Moon called the launch a “reckless provocation” after
holding an emergency meeting with his national security advisers, adding that
it was a “clear violation” of UN security council resolutions banning North
Korean missile tests.
The US Pacific Command confirmed a missile had been launched
from a site in Kusong, north-west of the capital Pyongyang, but added that “the
flight is not consistent with an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).”
Japanese and US military officials said it had flown about
800km before falling, without incident, in waters about 400km off the east
coast of North Korea. Japan’s defence minister, Tomomi Inada, said the missile
reached an altitude of 2,000km.
David Wright, co-director of the Global Security Programme
at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said flight data suggested the missile
could be more advanced than others in North Korea’s arsenal. “If the
information that has been reported about the test are correct, the missile has
considerably longer range than its current missiles,” he said.
Citing Japanese reports, Wright said the 30-minute flight
time “would instead require a missile that was highly lofted, reaching an
apogee of about 2,000km while splashing down at a range of 700km. If that same
missile was flown on a standard trajectory, it would have a maximum range of
about 4,500km.”
Wright added: This range is considerably longer than the
estimated range of the Musudan missile, which showed a range of about 3,000km
in a test last year.
He noted Guam, a US territory that houses a military base,
is 3,400 km from North Korea. Reaching the US west coast would require a
missile with a range of more than 8,000km. Hawaii is about 7,000km away.
The White House said on Sunday North Korea has been “a
flagrant menace for far too long” and that President Donald Trump “cannot
imagine that Russia is pleased” with North Korea’s latest missile test, saying
the projectile landed close to Russian soil.
Washington has previously warned that a test of an ICBM
could be met with retaliation, including a possible military response. North
Korea, however, has vowed to continue with its quest to marry a miniaturised
nuclear warhead with a missile capable of reaching the US mainland to counter
what it calls American “aggression”.
“The United States should never expect us to give up our
nuclear capability,” the main Rodong newspaper said in a commentary carried by
North Korea’s KCNA news agency at the weekend. The paper said the sole aim of
Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure and engagement” policy was to “stifle” the
North and would compel it to “strengthen our nuclear deterrent at the maximum
speed”.
Most experts doubt the regime has developed an ICBM capable
of reaching the US mainland.
Sunday’s launch – at a site last used in February to test an
intermediate-range missile – took place just four days after Moon took office
pledging to engage with the North while maintaining diplomatic pressure and
sanctions.
North Korea used missile launches to gauge Donald Trump’s
reaction soon after he became president, and could be attempting to do the same
with Moon.
Moon, who won by a landslide after the impeachment of his
predecessor, Park Geun-hye, over a corruption scandal, said at his inauguration
he would be willing to visit Pyongyang to meet the regime’s leader, Kim
Jong-un, if it meant bringing lasting peace to the Korean peninsula.
Yoon Young-chan, a press secretary at the presidential Blue
House, said at a briefing: “[Moon] said while South Korea remains open to the
possibility of dialogue with North Korea, it is only possible when North Korea
shows a change in attitude.”
Moon has also stressed that he wishes to work closely with
the US, despite scepticism in Washington over any early resumption of the
“sunshine policy” of engagement pursued by liberal South Korean leaders in the
1990s and early 2000s.
Trump, however, has also expressed a willingness to meet Kim
under certain conditions. On Saturday, a senior North Korean diplomat said
Pyongyang was prepared to negotiate with Washington “if the conditions are
set”.
Choe Son-hui, the director general for North American
affairs at North Korea’s foreign ministry, did not elaborate on what those
conditions were, but her comments raised the possibility of North Korea and the
US returning to multiparty nuclear negotiations for the first time since 2008.
Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, said Sunday’s missile
launch was “absolutely unacceptable”. Japan has lodged a protest to North Korea
via its embassy in Beijing.
“These repeated missile launches by North Korea are a grave
threat to our country and are in clear violation of UN security council
resolutions,” Abe said.
Australia’s defence minister, Marise Payne, said: “Australia
regards this as a reckless and provocative action that leads to instability
both regional and globally and has condemned clearly in the past North Korea
for this sort of behaviour and we do so again.”
Sunday’s launch is the first in two weeks since the last
attempt to fire a missile ended in a failure just minutes into its flight. J
The north has attempted but failed to test-launch ballistic
missiles on four occasions in the past two months but has conducted a variety
of missile tests since the beginning of last year, at an unprecedented pace.
Weapons experts and government officials believe the north
has accomplished some technical progress with those tests.
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