SEOUL– North Korea announced Monday it test-fired a Hwasong-12 “intermediate and long-range” ballistic missile the previous day. The accuracy of the weapons system “being produced and deployed” has been confirmed, according to Pyongyang’s state media.
“The evaluation test-fire of Hwasong 12-type ground-to-ground intermediate- and long-range ballistic missile was conducted Sunday under a plan of the Academy of Defense Science, the Second Economy Commission and other institutions concerned,” the North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in its English-language report.
The launch was aimed to “selectively evaluate the missile being produced and deployed and to verify the overall accuracy of the weapon system,” it added. “It confirmed the accuracy, security and effectiveness of the operation of the Hwasong 12-type weapon system under production.”
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un did not attend the firing.
The “highest-angle launch system” was used in consideration of the security of neighboring nations, the KCNA said, without providing other flight details in the five-paragraph report.
The state-controlled news outlet was apparently referring to an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) with a range of 3,000-5,500 kilometers, which the North previously shot in September 2017.
On Sunday, South Korea’s military said the missile, fired from the northwestern province of Jagang, flew about 800 km at a top altitude of 2,000 km before landing in the East Sea.
The Hwasong-12 is classified as an IRBM by the South Korean and U.S. military authorities.
Sunday’s launch marked the unpredictable North’s seventh show of force this year and its longest-range missile test since the test-firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in November 2017.
The KCNA released photos of the missile being launched from a transporter erector launcher (TEL), along with an image of Earth taken from space by a camera installed in the missile warhead.
The latest launch came just three days after the North fired two “surface-to-surface tactical guided missiles” toward the East Sea, which followed Pyongyang’s test-firing of two apparent cruise missiles two days earlier.
It conducted four other launches earlier this month, including those of what it claimed to be hypersonic missiles.
The North launched the most projectiles in a single month in January since Kim took power in late 2011. It conducted six projectile launches in both March and July 2014.
President Moon Jae-in presided over a rare plenary session of the National Security Council, the first in about a year. He said the North was seen as inching closer to scrapping its self-imposed moratorium on its nuclear and ICBM tests.
Earlier this month, Pyongyang made a veiled threat to lift the yearslong moratorium, as Washington has stepped up sanctions pressure on its regime amid a protracted deadlock in their nuclear talks.
U.S. Department of Defense press secretary John Kirby said Sunday that Washington was “laser focused on the challenges to the Korean Peninsula coming out of Pyongyang,” and vowed to stay “ready militarily on the peninsula and in the region.”
Source: Yonhap News Agency