North Korea Launches Most Powerful Test Missile in Years

"SEOUL -- North Korea launched an intermediate-range ballistic missile Sunday, raising the magnitude of its weapons tests to a level the Kim Jong Un regime hadn't approached in years.

The ballistic missile took a lofty trajectory of more than 1,200 miles, according to Japanese and South Korean officials. That would be more than twice the altitude of any Pyongyang launch since 2017.

North Korea said it used the "highest-angle launch system" to test-fire an intermediate-range ballistic missile, which it called "Hwasong-12," and had confirmed the "accuracy, security and effectiveness of the operation," Pyongyang's state media said. The missile was not a new type, having been launched more than four years ago.

The test is the clearest recent action toward a potential return to major provocations -- even though it appears, based on initial assessments, to have fallen short of being classified an intercontinental ballistic missile, according to weapons experts.

North Korea, in the aftermath of 2019's no-deal Vietnam summit with the U.S., has carried out dozens of tests, including seven in January. Its pacing has never revved up this high before. But the Kim regime has also attempted to walk a fine line, flashing shorter-range weapons or launching cruise missiles that have yet to draw widespread international blowback.

For more than four years, Mr. Kim has dangled his pause on ICBM launches and nuclear tests as a signal his cloistered regime has given diplomacy a shot with the U.S. The other shorter-range missile activity, Pyongyang argues, is a sovereign right to national defense.

The Sunday launch mirrored the altitude and flight distance of a Hwasong-12 test from May 2017, weapons experts said.

That would leave Sunday's launch with an estimated intermediate range of about 2,800 miles, shy of the 3,400 miles-or-more generally considered to be an intercontinental ballistic missile, said Jeffrey Lewis, a weapons expert and professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, Calif.

"We're getting closer to North Korea resuming ICBM tests," Mr. Lewis said.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in, at a meeting with his national-security team, noted Pyongyang's pause of more than four years on ICBM and nuclear tests. Assuming the launch was an intermediate-range missile, Mr. Moon said North Korea has "moved closer to scrapping the moratorium."

Japan's Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said, "North Korea has been repeating missile launches in new conditions at an unprecedentedly high frequency."

A senior administration official said the U.S. is concerned not only because of the latest test, but also due to the months of launches. The official declined to speculate on Pyongyang's motives for resuming and accelerating tests, which he characterized as destabilizing and threatening.

"We believe we have the right approach, which is to seek diplomacy and at the same time make clear that we stand ready to take appropriate actions to ensure the security of our allies, that promote regional stability as well as international security," he said.

Pentagon officials were aware of the test and were consulting with allies and partners in the region, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Sunday.

"The Defense Department is laser-focused on the Korean peninsula," Mr. Kirby said on "Fox News Sunday." He added, "We have to make sure that we're ready militarily on the peninsula and in the region."

The missile was fired Sunday from the North's Jagang province near its border with China, traveling around 30 minutes and flying about 500 miles before splashing into the waters between Korea and Japan, Seoul and Tokyo officials said.

The launch didn't appear to have landed in Japan's maritime exclusive economic zone, a spokesman for the Tokyo government said. That represents a measure of restraint by Pyongyang, which previously had flown missiles into the EEZ and even over the country, triggering emergency alerts.

The missile's path, North Korea's media said, had been decided "in consideration of the security of neighboring countries."" [1]

1. World News: North Korea Launches Most Powerful Test Missile in Years
Martin, Timothy W. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 31 Jan 2022: A.8.