The U.S. Pacific Command said it had detected and tracked the launch, which occurred at 6:42 a.m., of a single ballistic missile from a land-based facility near Sinpo, home to a large North Korean naval base.
“Initial assessments indicate the type of missile was a KN-15 medium range ballistic missile,” Pacific Command spokesman Cmdr. Dave Benham said. The KN-15 is also known as the Pukguksong-2, the land-based version of the submarine-launched Pukguksong-1, or KN-11.
“U.S. Pacific Command is fully committed to working closely with our Republic of Korea and Japanese allies to maintain security.”
In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga met reporters at the Prime Minister’s Office around 8 a.m., saying the missile flew only “tens of kilometers” and landed outside Japan’s economic exclusive zone.
Suga said Tokyo had immediately lodged a protest with the North, denouncing the launch as a clear violation of resolutions adopted at the United Nations Security Council banning Pyongyang from the test-firing of ballistic missiles.
“Our country … won’t tolerate repeated provocative actions by North Korea,” Suga said. “We have filed a grave protest against North Korea and strongly denounced” the test-firing.
South Korea’s Defense Ministry also confirmed the test, saying the missile flew about 60 km.
The launch came a day after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened that the United States was ready to go it alone in reining in the recalcitrant North if China did not step in. The North’s nuclear arms and missile programs are likely to top the agenda at the first meeting of Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, which is scheduled for Thursday and Friday in Florida.
Wednesday’s launch was the latest in a spate of tests this year, including the near-simultaneous firing of four ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan last month — a move the North said was a rehearsal for attacking U.S. bases in Japan. Those missiles, three of which fell into Japan’s exclusive economic zone, flew about 1,000 km. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe characterized that test as “a new level of threat.”
Missile experts said the hypothetical target of that drill appeared to be U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Yamaguchi Prefecture. Observers said the undisguised threat to U.S. bases in Japan was rare, even for Pyongyang, which routinely serves up colorful invectives.
In February, it also tested a Pukguksong-2, which uses solid fuel, from a mobile launcher. That launch, the first such test after Trump was sworn into office Jan. 20, saw the missile fly about 500 km into the Sea of Japan. It was conducted using a so-called lofting technique, where the missile is launched at a high angle.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was quoted at the time as saying that the missile was “another powerful nuclear attack means which adds to the tremendous might of the country.”
Pyongyang has conducted more than 20 missile launches and two nuclear tests over the past year as it seeks to master the technology needed to mount a warhead on a long-range ballistic missile capable of striking the continental United States. It has also been making apparent preparations for its sixth atomic test, according to analyses of recent commercial satellite imagery.
There has been growing speculation that Pyongyang will conduct an intercontinental ballistic missile test after leader Kim used a New Year’s Day address to claim that the North was in the final stages of developing such a weapon.
Any nuclear or ICBM test would pose a fresh challenge to Trump, who has vowed that Pyongyang’s goal of possessing a nuclear-tipped long-range missile “won’t happen.”
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said this month during a visit to Asia that years of efforts to get the North to give up its nuclear weapons program have failed. Tillerson promised “a new approach,” saying that military action against the North “was on the table.”
Source:Japan Times