SEOUL: North Korea likely fired a “new type” of ballistic missile on Thursday (Apr 13) that may have used advanced solid fuel, Seoul’s military said, representing a potential technical breakthrough for Pyongyang’s banned weapons programs.
“North Korea appears to have fired a new type of ballistic missile, possibly using solid fuel,” Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff told AFP.
All of Pyongyang’s known intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) are liquid-fuelled, and solid-fuel ICBMs that can be launched from land or submarines have long been on top of leader Kim Jong Un’s wish list.
Such missiles are easier to store and transport, more stable and quicker to prepare for launch, and thus harder to detect and destroy preemptively.
At a military parade in Pyongyang in February, North Korea showed off a record number of nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missiles, including what analysts said was possibly a new solid-fuelled ICBM.
Seoul’s military on Thursday said it had detected one “medium range or longer” ballistic missile launched on a lofted trajectory – up not out – from the Pyongyang area at 7.23am (6.23am, Singapore time), which flew 1,000 km.
Japan, which briefly issued a seek shelter warning to residents of the northern Hokkaido region, said the missile had not fallen within the country’s territory and posed no threat to residents.
Climate and environment ministers from the Group of Seven are due to meet this weekend in Sapporo, Hokkaido’s regional capital, a month before the group holds its summit in Hiroshima.
The United States said it “strongly condemns” North Korea for the test of what it described as a “long-range ballistic missile”.
The launch is the latest in a string of banned weapons tests conducted by North Korea, which has already fired several of its most powerful intercontinental ballistic missiles this year.
It has also tested what its state media has claimed are nuclear-capable underwater drones – known as Haeil, the Korean word for tsunami – which it says are capable of unleashing a “radioactive tsunami”.
On Monday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attended a meeting of the Central Military Commission to discuss ways to “cope with the escalating moves of the US imperialists and the south Korean puppet traitors to unleash a war of aggression”, Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency said.
Kim ordered that the country’s deterrence capabilities be strengthened with “increasing speed” and in a “more practical and offensive” manner.