Reports citing South Korean military chiefs say that Pyongyang has conducted first launch since it fired missile over Japan in September
North Korea has conducted a night test of an unidentified ballistic missile which flew over Japan and landed in the Pacific Ocean, bringing a return to high tension to the region after a lull of more than two months.
The type and range of the North Korean missile was not immediately clear, but initial reports from Seoul suggested that it came from a mobile launcher, and was fired at 3 am local time. The mobile night launch appeared aimed at testing new capabilities and demonstrating that Pyongyang would be able to strike back to any attempt at a preventative strike against the regime.
The Japanese broadcaster “The missile flew over Japan’s northern main island of Hokkaido and fell into the Pacific Ocean,” reports Japanese news outlet, NHK. First unconfirmed reports suggested that the flight time could have been as long as 50 minutes, which would be a record for a North Korean missile test.
Within minutes of the launch, the South Korean joint chiefs of staff announced Seoul had carried out an exercise involving the launch of a “precision strike” missile, signaling that it was primed to respond immediately to any attack from the north.
It was the first North Korean ballistic missile test since September 15, ending a pause that has been the norm in Autumn. It follows a warning earlier this month from Donald Trump that North Korean threats to strike the US and its allies would be a “fatal miscalculation.
