North Korea fires unidentified missile into Sea of Japan

Seoul, Dec 18 (EFE).- North Korea fired a ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan on Sunday, in what looked like a new weapons test, South Korea and Japan said.

The missile launch came three days after the reclusive country tested a high-thrust solid-fuel motor, in a development that could lead to a new type of more efficient intercontinental-range ballistic missile (ICBM).

“North Korea fired an unidentified ballistic missile into (the) East Sea,” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said, referring to the Sea of Japan.

The South Korean military did not elaborate.

Japanese broadcaster NHK said the defense ministry reported a launch from North Korea of “what appears to be a ballistic missile.”

The ministry reported that the missile fell outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone.

The new test comes days after the United Nations General Assembly approved a resolution calling for intensifying global efforts to improve the human rights situation in North Korea.

The North Korean military on Thursday tested the solid-fuel rocket motor in the presence of Kim Jong-un at a satellite launch center that the international community believes Pyongyang uses to test long-range missiles.

The development of a solid fuel ICBM is one of the objectives of Kim’s regime for the North Korean weapons modernization plan approved in January 2021.

“This important test has provided a sure sci-tech guarantee for the development of another new type of strategic weapon system,” the state-run Korea Central News Agency reported.

Tension on the Korean Peninsula is heightened amid a record number of weapons tests by the North Korean regime this year, large-scale joint military drills by South Korea and the United States, and the possibility that Pyongyang was ready to carry out its first nuclear test since 2017. EFE

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