North Korea yesterday fired its most advanced intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) with the potential to hit the United States, a day after launching a shorter-range missile, marking a record number of weapons tests by Pyongyang this year.
“Our forces have suspectedly detected a long-range ballistic missile launched from the Pyongyang area into the East Sea. [nome dado ao mar do Japão nas duas Coreias] at around 8:24″ (11:24 p.m. on Sunday in Lisbon), South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. Japan’s Ministry of Defense also confirmed the time of launch, adding that the missile was launched at around 9:37 a.m. local time (12:37 a.m. in Lisbon) landed outside the country’s special economic zone, 250 kilometers west of Okushiri island, near Hokkaido.
“The ICBM-class ballistic missile launched this time could have a flight range of more than 15,000 kilometers if calculated based on the trajectory, depending on the weight of the warhead,” said Shingo Miyake, Vice Minister of Defence. “The entire US territory would be within his reach,” he added.
The duration of the flight coincides with previous launches of this type of missile by Pyongyang and with the curved trajectory used to test this type of missile. This launch marks the 27th weapons test recorded by Kim Jong Un’s regime this year alone, five of which involved ICBMs.
South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol called for an immediate response, in coordination with the United States and Japan, to this launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile by North Korea, using the newly created exchange system . Missile information obtained following a trilateral meeting in August in the United States attended by the South Korean head of state, US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
“We should take advantage of the real-time information sharing system and proactively advocate for South Korea, the United States and Japan to respond in a coordinated manner,” Yoon said, emphasizing that measures should be “immediate and overwhelming” to address Pyongyang’s “provocations.” .
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida also described the launch as a “threat to peace and stability”, noting that it violated UN Security Council resolutions.
On Saturday, as part of the second meeting of the so-called Nuclear Consultative Group, South Korea and the United States had already agreed to draw up a joint nuclear strategy by the middle of next year to strengthen the deterrent strategy against North Korea. In the joint statement at the meeting, Washington reiterated its warning to North Korea, guaranteeing that any nuclear attack on the country will result in “the end of the Kim regime,” but also that a nuclear attack by Pyongyang on Seoul would be “a swift response, overwhelming and decisive”.
The head of Chinese diplomacy, Wang Yi, yesterday assured the country’s “strong support” to Pyongyang, recalling that “in the face of international turbulence, China and [a Coreia do Norte] have always firmly supported and trusted each other,” Wang Yi said during a meeting in Beijing with North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Pak Myong Ho.
with agencies
Source: DN
