North Korea test-fires missile with potential to hit US, Japan

Seoul, December 18

North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile on Monday that has a range to hit anywhere in the United States, said South Korea and Japan, marking its second launch in hours as Pyongyang condemned a US-led show of force as “war” moves.

The missile has a potential to travel more than 15,000 km (9,300 miles), meaning it can reach anywhere in Japan and the mainland US, Japan’s Parliamentary Vice Minister of Defense Shingo Miyake said.

South Korea’s National Security Council said it was a solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), labelling the launch a destabilising act that ignored international warnings and multiple UNSC resolutions.

President Yoon Suk Yeol had ordered the upgrading of the effective operation of “nuclear deterrence” by South Korea and the United States, it added.

Coinciding with the North’s fifth ICBM launch of the year, China and North Korea held a high-level meeting in Beijing on Monday.