SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea fired a short-range ballistic missile that landed in Japan’s maritime economic zone Monday, officials said, the latest in a string of test launches as the North seeks to build nuclear-tipped ICBMs that can reach the U. S. mainland.
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea fired a short-range ballistic missile that landed in Japan’s maritime economic zone Monday, officials said, the latest in a string of test launches as the North seeks to build nuclear-tipped ICBMs that can reach the U. S. mainland.
This launch of a suspected Scud-type missile, which the South Korean military said flew about 450 kilometers (280 miles) , may also be an attempt to demonstrate North Korea’s ability to strike U. S. and South Korean troops in the region.
The missile launched from the coastal town of Wonsan, the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. It landed in Japan’s exclusive maritime economic zone, which is set about 200 nautical miles off the Japanese coast, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said. He said there was no report of damage to planes or vessels in the area.
Because Monday’s test — the North’s ninth ballistic missile launch this year — was apparently of a short-range variety of which Pyongyang has a surplus of reliable missiles, it may have been meant more as a political and military message to outsiders than as a crucial test of not-yet-perfected technology.
The content of that message is open to interpretation, but some see a resolve to ignore U. S.-led pressure, which has included vague threats from President Donald Trump and the arrival in Korean waters of powerful U. S. military hardware, while also showing that the North can hit U. S. targets near and far. Scuds are capable of striking at American troops in South Korea, for instance, and two newly developed missiles tested earlier this month have potential ranges that include Japan, Guam and even, according to some South Korean analysts, Alaska.
