North Korea said on Friday its “milestone” test of a new Hwasong-19 intercontinental ballistic missile had secured it the “irreversible” status of developing the means to deliver nuclear weapons, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported.
North Korea fired the intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, on Thursday, days before the U.S. presidential election, in a demonstration of what leader Kim Jong Un said was its determination to “counteract” its rivals and bolster its nuclear forces.
“The test of the latest strategic weapon system updated the recent records of the strategic missile capability of the DPRK and demonstrated the modernity and credibility of its world’s most powerful strategic deterrent,” Yonhap cited the North’s Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA, as saying. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or DPRK, is North Korea’s official name.
Kim said the test proved the “hegemonic position” that the North had “secured in the development and manufacture of nuclear delivery means of the same kind is absolutely irreversible,” KCNA said.
North Korea said the Hwasong-19 traversed 1,001.2 kilometers (622 miles) at a maximum altitude of 7,687.5 kilometers (4,715 miles) and flew for 5,156 seconds (85.9 minutes), the longest flight time for a North Korean missile.
The South Korean military said it believed the missile was a new solid-fuel ICBM.
Photos carried by North Korean state media showed the missile being fired from a 11-axle transporter erector. Kim’s daughter, Kim Ju Ae, also inspected the missile launch, Yonhap reported.
The record-long ICBM test, North Korea’s first since December and its seventh in as many years, indicated its missile program was being helped along by its closer ties to Russia, North Korea observers in the United States told Radio Free Asia.
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The test came in the midst of rising global alarm about North Korea’s deployment of thousands of troops to Russia to help with its war in Ukraine, which South Korea and its allies have warned risks triggering a dangerous escalation of the conflict.
“North Korea is getting ever more dangerous missile technology thanks to its new alliance with Russia, and I think yesterday’s test goes a long way to proving that,” Harry Kazianis, of the Washington-based Center for the National Interest think tank, told RFA Korean.
South Korea, Japan and the United States condemned the test, North Korea’s latest violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions aimed at curbing its development of nuclear weapons and the missiles to carry them around the world.
China, which has long been North Korea’s closest ally, said it was concerned about the latest developments and reiterated its position that “preserving peace and stability on the peninsula and promoting the process of political resolution to the peninsula issue aligns with the common interests of all parties.”
Edited by Mike Firn