According to Pyongyang, the test demonstrates efforts in nuclear counterstrike capabilities amid tensions with the US and South Korea.
The North Korean military fired a Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile on Saturday, reports the state news agency KCNA, noting that it was a “test launch.”
South Korean and Japanese military denounced on Saturday that North Korea launched what could be a long-range ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan. According to data from the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff, collected by Yonhap, the missile was launched from the Sunan area in Pyongyang at 5:22 p.m. (local time).
The flight of the North Korean missile lasted more than an hour; the Japanese Ministry of Defense announced its downfall at around 18:30 (local time). According to the Japanese military, the projectile covered a distance of about 900 kilometers and reached a maximum altitude approximately 5,700 kilometers. It is estimated that it fell about 200 kilometers west of Oshima, Hokkaido.
Shortly thereafter, Japan’s Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada detailed that the range of the missile is 14,000 kilometerspotentially reaching the US.
More information, shortly.
Source: RT
