North Korea Conducts Longest ICBM Test Amidst Trump’s Sabre-Rattling

North Korean state broadcaster on Wednesday said the latest missile launched by Pyongyang is a new ICBM model, dubbed Hwasong-15, capable of reaching the United States mainland. The missile test comes a week after the US administration added North Korea to the list of terrorist states. Pyongyang considered this move by the US as an act of confrontation.

As is the norm, North Korea's veteran newsreader Ri Chun-Hee of KCTV made the announcement of the successful launch of the intercontinental ballistic missile authorised and witnessed first-hand by Kim Jong-un.

This is the first launch by Pyongyang in two and a half months, Efe news reported.

The missile was fired into the Sea of Japan and flew for more than 900 km and reached a height of 4,000 km, which is the highest a North Korean missile has flown to date.

“If these numbers are correct, then if flown on a standard trajectory rather than this lofted trajectory, this missile would have a range of more than 13,000 kilometres (km) (8,100 miles)”, noted David Wright, co-director of the Union of Concerned Scientists Global Security Program.

He further added that this missile has much longer range than North Korea’s previous long-range missile tests of Hwasong-14 conducted on July 4 and July 28 this year. Hwasong-15 missile “would have more than enough range to reach Washington, D.C. and in fact any part of the continental United States”.

Meanwhile, the chair of Russia's Foreign Affairs Committee, Konstantin Kosachev has said that the launch of the long-range ballistic missile test might have been triggered by the US and South Korea’s sabre-rattling, which they refuse to tone down.

“It’s a fact that during the past two months North Korea has been demonstrating restraint and did not provoke the international community by any means. Pyongyang, most likely, expected the same restraint in response on part of the West, both in judgments and actions,” said Senator Kosachev.

The tension in the Korean peninsula has reached a dangerous stage since the business-tycoon-turned-politician Donald Trump took over the US presidency last year. Trump has repeatedly said that a “military option” is on the table if North Korea continues to develop its nuclear program, even threatening to “totally destroy” the East Asian country during his speech at the United Nations General Assembly in September.

The U.S. currently has nearly 30,000 troops and an anti-ballistic missile defence system (THAAD) stationed in South Korea.

The US administration has confirmed the ICBM launch and said that the United States would use “the full range of capabilities at our disposal against the growing threat.”

(with inputs from IANS)