This shot triggered a brief alert in the Japanese island of Hokkaido (north) before Japan clarified that the projectile had not hit its territory. “North Korea appears to have launched a new type of ballistic missile, possibly solid-fuelled,” the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
All intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) launched so far by North Korea have been liquid fueled. However, solid-fuel missiles, which Pyongyang has long sought to develop, demonstrate better stability and are quicker to prepare for launch than liquid-fuel missiles, which makes them more difficult to detect and destroy by American forces.
Launched at 07:23 a.m. (2223 GMT) on Thursday, the missile followed a lobbed trajectory and “travelled 1,000 km before landing in the East Sea”, the Korean name for the Sea of Japan, said the South Korean army.
Japan on alert
“This launch constitutes a shameless violation of several United Nations Security Council resolutions, unnecessarily increases tensions and risks destabilizing security in the region”, denounced in a press release Adrienne Watson, spokesperson for the National Security Council of the US presidency.
The shooting triggered a brief alert in the island of Hokkaido, in the north of the Japanese archipelago. “Evacuate immediately. Evacuate immediately,” the Japanese government ordered in a message, urging Hokkaido residents to take shelter in buildings or underground. However, the Japanese government quickly confirmed that the missile had not fallen on its territory.
This shooting came as two ministerial meetings of the rich G7 countries are scheduled for the next few days in Japan: a meeting of environment ministers in Hokkaido on Saturday and Sunday, and one of foreign ministers on Sunday and Monday in Karuizawa ( center), before the G7 summit scheduled for May in Hiroshima.
“Radioactive tsunami”
Pyongyang has stepped up arms tests in recent months, heightening tension with Seoul and Washington, which have for their part strengthened their military cooperation and carried out vast joint maneuvers in the region. On Monday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for increasing his country’s deterrence capabilities to counter “the escalation of maneuvers by US imperialists and treacherous South Korean puppets to unleash a war of aggression”. , according to the official KCNA news agency.
