North Korea launched an apparently long-range ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan (called the East Sea in both Koreas) on February 18, the South Korean army reported in a brief statement.
On the eve, North Korea threatened an “unprecedented” response to the military exercises planned for March by South Korea and the US, which next week will also carry out a theoretical exercise simulating a nuclear attack by the regime.
The Japanese Coast Guard notified the launch at 5:22 p.m. (03:22 a.m. Colombia time). citing information provided by the Ministry of Defence. Shortly after, Japanese government sources quoted by the Kyodo agency also confirmed that it was the launch of a ballistic missile of an unspecified type.
The South Korean military detected a launch, believed to be a long-range ballistic missile, into the East Sea from the Sunan area of Pyongyang at 5:22 p.m. on February 18.
“The South Korean military detected a launch, believed to be a long-range ballistic missile, into the East Sea from Pyongyang’s Sunan area at 5:22 p.m. (03:22 a.m. Colombia time) on today February 18,” the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) detailed in a statement.
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In turn, Japanese government sources quoted by public radio television NHK indicated that the missile could have fallen in the waters of the Japanese exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
Pyongyang carried out a record number of missile launches last year, around fifty, in many cases in response to joint maneuvers by Seoul and Washington and the deployment of strategic Pentagon assets on the peninsula. Satellite photos also show that the Punggye-ri nuclear test center (in the northeast of the country) has been completely rehabilitated for almost a year and is ready to host a new atomic test.
Sunan, where the international airport of the North Korean capital is located, is the place from which the regime has launched on more than one occasion its Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the one with the longest potential range within its arsenal.
On February 8, the regime also paraded for the first time what appears to be a new solid fuel ICBMa more efficient type of missile (solid fuel makes loading and storage safer and easier to deploy the projectile) that was proposed to be developed after approving a weapons modernization plan in 2021.
Today is Pyongyang’s second launch this year, after it fired a short-range projectile from a large multiple rocket launcher on Jan. 1.
EFE
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