As the war rages on in Ukraine, another threat materialized across the globe this week. For the first time in years, North Korea has launched a powerful missile. We’ve got more on what the White House has called a “brazen violation” — and what experts are saying about this dangerous new weapon.
North Korea launches a long-range ballistic missile
The country on Thursday launched its first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) since 2017. The new missile reached an altitude of 3,852 miles, reportedly much higher than past tests, and splashed down in the waters off Japan’s western coast, Japan’s Defense Ministry said. The test was meant to signal that the weapon could have the range to strike the U.S., the New York Times reports.
The launch ends a self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and ICBM tests, which the country’s head Kim Jong-un announced in 2018 after meeting with former President Donald Trump. At the time, Trump declared that North Korea was “no longer a nuclear threat.”
What’s known about the new missile?
Experts believe the missile is a new weapon, called the Hwasong-17. Early data indicates it could have a maximum range of about 9,320 miles, which would theoretically allow it to reach the U.S., a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul told CNN. It also may have the ability to lift multiple nuclear warheads. But it’s still unclear whether Pyongyang has mastered the technology to actually fly a missile across the Pacific or if its weapons can survive the turbulent re-entry into the atmosphere en route to a target.
The ICBM is also much larger than the Hwasong-15, an earlier iteration which flew to a height of 2,780 miles when the country tested it in 2017.
Why do a missile test now?
Through saber-rattling, Kim Jong-un is hoping to push the Biden administration back into talks over international sanctions. And as the tension escalates between the U.S. and Russia, North Korea’s betting that the two nations won’t band together like they did back in 2017 (after the country tested its last ICBM) to confront Pyongyang.
“There is no way Russia is going to cooperate at the U.N. Security Council when the United States wants to impose tough sanctions against North Korea,” the director of the Center for North Korean Studies at the Sejong Institute told the NYT.
How has the world reacted?
The White House called the test a “brazen violation” of U.N. Security Council resolutions that “needlessly raises tensions and risks destabilizing the security situation in the region.” President Biden, who’s in Brussels with NATO and Group of 7 leaders to discuss the situation in Ukraine, is “assessing the situation” with his national security team, per a White House statement.
Meanwhile, South Korea fired its own ballistic missiles less than two hours after the North Korean launch as a “retaliatory” show of its own weapons capabilities. “North Korea violated its own moratorium on ICBM tests that it had promised to the international community,” the South Korean military said. “This is a serious threat to peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula.”
