Communist North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on Thursday that flew for 86 minutes, a record for Pyongyang, suggesting it is capable of reaching the continental United States.
South Korean and Japanese military observers tracked the missile, documenting that it traveled 621 miles across and flew to about 4,300 miles in altitude. The missile fell in the East Sea/Sea of Japan. The missile appeared to be fired intentionally at a very steep angle to not land on any populated target, but show the world it is capable of hitting America if necessary.
Pyongyang’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) confirmed the missile launch shortly after it occurred, calling it a “very crucial test” necessary to show the world the “modernity and creditability” of North Korea’s nuclear threats.
Kim Jong-un issued a statement directly on Thursday defending the threatening launch as an “appropriate military activity,” but not directly describing it as a ploy related to the schedule of the American presidential election. The ICBM, he claimed, “fully meets the purpose of informing the rivals [South Korea and America], who have intentionally escalated the regional situation and posed a threat to the security of our Republic recently, of our counteraction will.”
“It also constitutes an indispensable process in the course of constantly developing our state’s strategic attack forces,” he continued. “We should never allow any threat to approach the security sphere under our state’s influence.”
“The security situation of our state and ever-aggravating prospective threats and challenges require us to continue to bolster up our modern strategic attack forces and more perfectly round off our nuclear forces’ response posture,” he concluded, vowing to never denuclearize his country.
The KCNA report did not identify what kind of ICBM North Korea launched on Thursday. Pyongyang often boasts of the specific model missile that it fires. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) similarly noted that it did not have enough evidence to confirm the model launched and stated that it could potentially be an entirely new ICBM model. The latest known model of North Korean ICBM is the “Hwasong-18,” which Kim Jong-un first ordered a test-launch of in July 2023. South Korean experts predicted based on the information North Korea published on the missile model that it could potentially hit any part of the continental United States. North Korea had not launched an ICBM in about a year.
“Early assessment showed there is a possibility (North Korea) may have test-fired a new type of solid-fuel long-range ballistic missile,” JCS spokesperson Lee Sung-jun said on Thursday. The Korea JoongAng Daily also reported, citing an unnamed JCS official, that South Korean military experts believe Pyongyang used a different mobile launcher than those previously used for older models, adding to evidence that the ICBM may have been an entirely new missile.
“The launch today may have been from a new 24-wheel mobile launcher that North Korea recently revealed,” a JCS official reportedly said. “It is possible that the missile has grown in size and the warhead weight has increased.”
Lee told reporters that the South Korean military believes that the missile launch was in part timed to coincide with the days before America elects a new president, potentially to “gain leverage” over any incoming American presidential administration.
The South Korean news agency Yonhap also quoted an expert at the Korea Institute for National Unification, Hong Min, who said the missile launch was also a way to remind the world that North Korea now boasts a mutual defense agreement with Russia and is believed to be increasingly involved in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Given that an ICBM targets the U.S., (the North) has boasted its proven capability to retaliate in the event its safety is threatened,” Hong said.
Officials in both Seoul and Tokyo warned on Wednesday that they had detected North Korean military activity suggesting an imminent ICBM launch or even nuclear weapons test. Members of the South Korean Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) told lawmakers that it believed that Kim Jong-un had entirely rehabilitated the Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site, used for seven previous tests and believed to be in a state of extreme disrepair. The South Korean officials, Japanese news network NHK reported, predicted the ICBM launch and “have not ruled out North Korea going ahead with its seventh nuclear test around the time of the US presidential election.”
“The officials also said preparations inside the Punggye-ri nuclear test site in the northeast of the country are almost complete,” the report relayed. Punggye-ri has not been used for a nuclear test since 2017.
While Kim Jong-un has not ordered a nuclear test in seven years, he has taken a variety of measures intended to reinforce his country’s illicit nuclear weapons program, including outlawing denuclearization and ordering an “exponential increase” in its nuclear warhead arsenal in early 2023. He repeated that call in September, after signing a mutual defense agreement with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin.
Kim has focused his foreign policy in the past four years on improving ties with Russia, distancing North Korea from its traditional patrons in communist China. Shortly after signing the defense agreement, reports began surfacing that North Korea was preparing to send troops to reinforce Russian efforts in the invasion of Ukraine. As of this week, the South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) informed that it believes 3,000 North Korean soldiers are in Russia, and that number could balloon to as many as 12,000 by the end of the year.
“This illegal military cooperation between Russia and North Korea is a significant security threat to the international community and could pose a serious risk to our national security,” South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said this week. “With the war in Ukraine going on for three years, North Korea has deployed troops to Russia beyond providing weapons.”
“We must thoroughly assess all possibilities and prepare countermeasures. I urge everyone to engage in risk management with a heightened sense of vigilance,” Yoon asserted.
