SEOUL // North Korea on Monday celebrated the launch of what appeared to be its longest-range ballistic missile yet tested in a bid to bring the US mainland within reach, saying it was capable of carrying a “heavy nuclear warhead”.
Leader Kim Jong Un personally oversaw the test on Sunday, the official Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) said, and pictures by state media showed him gazing at the missile in a hangar before the launch.
In others he gleefully clasped hands with officers and staff after the black missile, named as the Hwasong-12, ascended into the sky at dawn.
Pyongyang is under multiple sets of United Nations sanctions over its nuclear and missile programmes, which have triggered global alarm.
Jubilant leader Kim Jong Un promised more nuclear and missile tests and warned that North Korean weapons could strike the US mainland and Pacific holdings. Lee Jin-man / AP Photo
The missile was launched on an unusually high trajectory, with KCNA saying it flew to an altitude of 2,111.5 kilometres and travelled 787 kilometres before coming down in the Sea of Japan.
That suggests a range of 4,500 kilometres or more if flown for maximum distance, analysts said.
Aside from Pyongyang’s space launches, “this is the longest-range missile North Korea has ever tested,” said Jeffrey Lewis of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in the US.
On the 38 North website, aerospace engineering specialist John Schilling said it appeared to demonstrate an intermediate-range ballistic missile that could “reliably strike the US base at Guam” in the Pacific.
“More importantly,” Mr Schilling, it “may represent a substantial advance to developing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)”.
The North has carried out two atomic tests and dozens of missile launches since the beginning of last year in its quest to develop a missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to the continental United States — something president Donald Trump has vowed “won’t happen”.
A woman walks by a TV news programme showing images of North Korean missile launch at Seoul Railway station, South Korea. Lee Jin-man / AP Photo
KCNA said the new rocket was a “perfect weapon” which was “capable of carrying a large-size heavy nuclear warhead”.
It cited Mr Kim as saying the North would never succumb to what it called the “highly ridiculous” US strategy of “militarily browbeating only weak countries and nations which have no nukes”.
“If the US dares opt for a military provocation against the DPRK, we are ready to counter it,” it said.
Tensions between the two reached a peak in recent weeks, with Washington saying military action was an option under consideration and Pyongyang issuing threats of its own.
Mr Trump later appeared to hold open the door to negotiations, saying he would be “honoured” to meet Mr Kim and calling him a “smart cookie”.
Last week the South elected a new president, Moon Jae-In, who advocates reconciliation with Pyongyang and said at his inauguration that he was willing “in the right circumstances” to visit the North to ease tensions.
But he slammed the latest missile test as a “reckless provocation” and said dialogue would be possible “only if the North changes its attitude”.
Mr Schilling said the ability to hit Guam, 3,400 kilometres away, was not a game-changer, but that the new missile could be a step along the way.
“What would change the strategic balance is an ICBM capable of reaching the US mainland,” he said.
“This is not that missile but it might be a test bed, demonstrating technologies and systems to be used in future ICBMs.”
The North could be testing ICBM subsystems in a “low-key manner” to “hedge” against the possibility of US military action, he added.
The United States called for tougher sanctions against the North, with the White House saying it “has been a flagrant menace for far too long”.
Washington and Tokyo called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council, which was scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.
China, Pyongyang’s sole major ally and main trading partner, which has been under growing US pressure to help rein in its wayward neighbour, urged restraint.
* Agence France-Presse
