North Korea, after threatening U.S. military, fires suspected ICBM

The flight time is the longest ever for a North Korean missile, local media quoted Japanese Defense Ministry officials as saying. U.S., Japanese and South Korean officials identified the missile as a suspected ICBM.

The missile, which reached an altitude of nearly 3,730 miles, Japanese officials said, appears to be one of the farthest traveling ICBMs tested by Pyongyang to date. North Korea typically launches missiles on what officials and experts call a “lofted trajectory,” firing the missile almost straight up so as not to fly over the airspaces of neighboring countries.

South Korean officials are now assessing whether the launch was the new solid-fuel ICBM, dubbed Hwasong-18, that North Korea tested in April, according to South Korean media reports.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has long wanted solid-fuel propellants, which make the weapons more nimble and mobile compared to liquid-propelled missiles, thus making them more difficult for satellites to spot during launch preparations. Most countries with ICBMs maintain a mix of both types.

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The launch took place just as Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was finishing a trilateral meeting with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts in Hawaii.

“This launch is a brazen violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions and needlessly raises tensions and risks destabilizing the security situation in the region,” the White House said in a statement condemning the launch.

The statement added that President Biden’s national security team was “assessing the situation” in coordination with U.S. allies.

North Korea said on Friday that it had successfully tested a new solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile, which can be deployed more quickly than previous versions, giving potential targets — including the United States — less time to identify and respond to any incoming rocket.

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Wednesday’s launch comes after Pyongyang accused the United States of repeatedly flying spy planes into its airspace.

Kim Yo Jong, the North Korean leader’s sister, said Monday that such reconnaissance flights near its territory would be met with “resolute” consequences and threatened to shoot down such aircraft. Washington and Seoul denied North Korea’s allegations.

Earlier this week, North Korea’s Defense Ministry accused Washington of stoking tensions by planning to send a nuclear submarine to South Korea for the first time since 1981.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who is in Lithuania attending the annual NATO summit, convened an emergency meeting of the National Security Council to discuss the missile launch. Yoon earlier said he planned to discuss North Korea’s weapons arsenal with NATO leaders.

North Korea last month launched what it said was a spy satellite, which failed midflight. South Korea’s military retrieved the wreckage from the sea and concluded this month that it “did not have any military use as a reconnaissance satellite.”

Lee reported from Washington. Alex Horton in Washington and Julia Mio Inuma in Tokyo contributed to this report.