North Korea has launched a new type of ICBM that is harder to detect

North Korea held on Thursday its first launch of an ICBM in a month, possibly test a new missile that is more mobile and harder to detectsaid his neighbors, as he extended his provocative series of weapons tests.

Japan briefly urged residents of a northern island to take cover.

The missile was fired at a high angle from near the North Korean capital Pyongyang and fell into the waters between the Korean peninsula and Japan after a 1,000-kilometre (620-mile) flight, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

He described his range as medium or longer. The US National Security Council has called it a long-range missile, and the Japanese government has probably said so It had an intercontinental reach.

For the South Korean military, he launched North Crea a new type of ballistic missilepossibly using solid fuel, a technology long sought after by Kim Jong Un’s regime

So far, all of North Korea’s known intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). they were liquid fuelsbut the development of this new propulsion technology was an old aspiration of Pyongyang.

difficult to spot

These bullets they are easier to store and transport, more stable and faster throw, which makes them more Difficult to detect and neutralize.

At a military parade in Pyongyang in FebruaryNorth Korea has displayed a record number of nuclear and ICBMsincluding some that were likely new fossil-fuel ICBMs, analysts said.

Japan, which briefly issued a warning urging people in northern Hokkaido to seek refuge, said the missile did not land on its territory and it did not threaten its citizens.

G7 environment and climate ministers are meeting this weekend in Sapporo, the capital of the Hokkaido region, a month ahead of the group leaders’ summit in Hiroshima.

United States of America “strongly” condemned North Korea for the launch of what he described as a “long-range ballistic missile”.

This is the latest proof of prohibited weapons from Pyongyang, which already had toured several times this year its most powerful ICBMs and had tested what it describes as underwater nuclear strike drones.

The test comes after Kim Jong Un ordered on Monday to strengthen the country’s deterrence capabilities at “faster speed” and with a “more practical and offensive” approach.

Relations between the two Koreas They’ve been at their worst in years.

The North declared last year as “irreversible” its status as a nuclear power, closing the door to negotiations on a possible dismantling of this arsenal.

And this year, Kim has ordered the army to step up drills to prepare for it a “real war”.

The South has stepped up defense cooperation with Washington, with joint exercises that include the deployment of strategic US military assets in the area.

Pyongyang sees these maneuvers as tests a possible invasion. He described them on Tuesday as “frantic” exercises that “simulate an all-out war” against his country.

The latest evidence is probably an attempt by the North to “put pressure on in the South and the United States for their joint military exercises,” Choi Gi-il, a professor of military studies at Sangji University, told AFP.

Seoul on Tuesday accused North Korea of “irresponsible” for having cut the direct line of contact between the two countries last week.

According to the South Korean Unification Ministry, Pyongyang He hasn’t been answering calls since Friday carried out through the military hotline or the inter-Korean relay channel.

“With North Koreans not answering their phones, the lack of direct lines of contact and diplomacy increases the risk of an involuntary escalation” on the peninsula, warned Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Seoul’s Ewha University.

Associated Press and AFP

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