Pyongyang fired “an intermediate-range ballistic missile” on Sunday, South Korea said. This is the seventh weapons test conducted by North Korea since the beginning of the year.
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This is the seventh weapons test conducted by Pyongyang since the beginning of the year. North Korea launched its most powerful missile since 2017 on Sunday, January 30, according to Seoul. South Korea believes that its neighbor could soon carry out its threat to resume its nuclear or intercontinental ballistic missile tests.
South Korea has warned the North is following “a similar path” to that of 2017, when tensions were at their height on the Korean peninsula. Pyongyang “is close to breaking the moratorium” self-imposed on nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile testing, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said in a statement.
The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff announced that, at dawn on Sunday, “detected an intermediate-range ballistic missile fired at a high angle to the east”. The missile was fired from the northern province of Jagang, from where North Korea has launched what it claims are hypersonic missiles from in recent months.
It reached a maximum altitude of 2,000 kilometers and traveled about 800 kilometers in 30 minutes before falling into the Sea of Japan, the general staff said. Japan also considered it to be a medium or long range missile. The last such missile to be tested by Pyongyang was the Hwasong-12, which had traveled 787 kilometers and reached a maximum altitude of 2,111 kilometers in 2017.
The last time North Korea fired so many shots in such a short time was in 2019, after negotiations between its leader Kim Jong Un and then-US President Donald Trump broke down. The North Korean regime threatened on January 20 to resume nuclear or missile tests, saying it was politically compelled to do so. “hostile” of the United States towards him.