North Korea Test-Fires Intermediate-Range Ballistic Missile

North Korea launched an intermediate-range ballistic missile off its east coast on Sunday, an indication, analysts said, that it has started testing a model new and harder-to-intercept weapon capable of reaching American military bases throughout the Western Pacific, along with these on Guam.

The ​missile was launched from near Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, on Sunday afternoon, nonetheless it didn’t fly over Japan, as some of the IRMBs North Korea has launched before now have. Instead, it fell in waters between North Korea and Japan​, masking a distance of 621 miles, South Korean military officers said.

The launch was the North’s first missile check out as a result of it fired a Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile on Dec. 18.

North Korea examined the Hwasong-18, its first solid-fuel ICBM, for the first time in April 2023 and launched the similar sort of missile two further events remaining yr, a sign that the nation was increasingly shifting to solid-fuel ballistic missiles. On account of they’re easier to maneuver and sooner to launch than liquid-fuel missiles, they’re further dangerous.