North Korea keeps up missile barrage with suspected ICBM

Seoul, November 3

North Korea added its barrage of recent weapons tests on Thursday, firing at least three missiles including a suspected intercontinental ballistic missile that forced the Japanese government to issue evacuation alerts and temporarily halt trains.

The launches are the latest in a series of North Korean weapons tests in recent months that have raised tensions in the region. They came a day after Pyongyang fired more than 20 missiles, the most it has fired in a single day ever.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected the North firing a missile it presumed as an ICBM from an area near its capital Pyongyang around 7.40 am and then firing two short-range missiles an hour later from the nearby city of Kacheon that flew towards its eastern waters.

While South Korean officials didn’t immediately release more specific flight details, the longer-range missile may have been fired on a high angle to avoid reaching the territory of the North’s neighbours.

Japan’s Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada said one of the North Korean missiles reached a maximum altitude of 2,000 kilometres (1,200 miles) and travelled about 750 kilometres (460 miles) before his military lost track of the weapon.

The Japanese government initially feared that the suspected ICBM would fly over its northern territory, but later revised its assessment, saying there were no overflies.

Hamada said the missile “disappeared” from Japanese radars in skies above waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.

Choi Yong Soo, a South Korean Navy captain who handles public affairs for Seoul’s Defence Ministry, didn’t offer a specific answer when asked whether the military believes the launch might have failed with the missile exploding in midair, saying that the test was still being analysed.