North Korea on Wednesday launched an intercontinental ballistic missile toward the Sea of Japan, marking the longest-ever flight time for a projectile fired by the country at 74 minutes, the Japanese government said.
The ICBM was fired at around 9:59 a.m. from a site near Pyongyang and fell into the sea some 250 kilometers west of Okushiri Island, which lies just off Japan's northernmost main island of Hokkaido, at about 11:13 a.m., the government said.
The launch came after Pyongyang recently lambasted U.S. military activities near its territory as provocative, while the United States plans to send a nuclear-armed submarine to South Korea, further escalating tensions surrounding the Korean Peninsula.
The missile is estimated to have flown around 1,000 km at a maximum altitude of more than 6,000 km, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said, adding that the projectile could have been fired on a steep vertical path or a "lofted trajectory" based on its flight time.
There were no reports of damage by the missile, which fell outside Japan's exclusive economic zone, said Matsuno, the top government spokesman.
After the unsuccessful launch of a rocket carrying a military reconnaissance satellite on May 31, North Korea said it would try another one soon. But Matsuno said Wednesday's projectile was different from the projected one, without elaborating the reasons.
In Lithuania, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters that North Korea's repeated missile launches in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions imposing sanctions on Pyongyang are "totally unacceptable" and "pose a threat to peace and safety" in the region and the international community.
Kishida, who is in the European nation to participate in a NATO summit, said Japan "strongly" condemns North Korea's actions and that Tokyo had lodged a protest with Pyongyang.
Japan will work closely with the United States and South Korea to monitor the North's missile and nuclear activities and analyze related information, Kishida said.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who is also in Lithuania, criticized the North's missile launch, saying the country will be made to "pay a price for the illicit act," according to his office.
The Japanese government held a meeting of the National Security Council involving senior government officials in Tokyo at the request of Kishida.
At their bilateral summit in Lithuania on Wednesday, Kishida told Yoon that trilateral security cooperation among Japan, South Korea and the United States is necessary to tackle missile and nuclear threats from the North.
Despite North Korea's repeated provocations, Kishida has voiced readiness to establish high-level talks with the nation to pave the way for an early meeting with leader Kim Jong Un to resolve the issue of the past abductions of Japanese nationals by Pyongyang.
North Korea, however, has claimed that the abduction issue has been already resolved.
Pyongyang last fired ballistic missiles on June 15 when two short-range projectiles fell inside Japan's EEZ off Ishikawa Prefecture along the Sea of Japan.
Earlier this week, Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of Kim Jong Un, warned the U.S. military that it would face a "very critical flight" if a strategic reconnaissance plane of the U.S. Air Force repeats an "illegal intrusion" in the country's airspace off its coast.
The latest launch of a missile, whose flight duration surpassed the previous record of 71 minutes in March 2022, is considered to be a military demonstration ahead of the 70th anniversary of the suspension of open hostilities in the Korean War.
During the war that began on June 25, 1950 and ended on July 27, 1953, the United Nations forces led by the United States fought alongside South Korea against the North, supported by China and the Soviet Union.
The firing of the projectile may have been a fresh test of the Hwasong-18 new solid-fuel ICBM launched in April, which is viewed as capable of reaching the U.S. mainland.
A solid-fuel missile does not require fueling prior to launch like a liquid-fuel missile, making it harder for other countries to detect preparations for firing as well as giving it a better pre-emptive strike and retaliatory capability.
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