New North Korea missile launch days after South Korea leader hints at dialogue

Ju-min Park and Jack Kim

North Korea fired a ballistic missile last night in defiance of calls to rein in its weapons program.

The launch comes days after a new leader in South Korea came to power, pledging to engage it in dialogue.

The US Pacific Command said it was assessing the type of missile but it was "not consistent with an intercontinental ballistic missile". Japanese Defence Minister Tomomi Inada said the missile could be of a new type.

The missile flew 700km (430 miles) and reached an altitude of more than 2,000km (1,245 miles), according to officials in South Korea and Japan, further and higher than an intermediate-range missile North Korea successfully tested in February from the same region of Kusong, northwest of its capital Pyongyang.

North Korea is widely believed to be developing an intercontinental missile tipped with a nuclear weapon that is capable of reaching the United States.

US President Donald Trump has vowed not to let that happen.

An intercontinental ballistic missile is considered to have a range of more than 6,000km (3,700 miles).

Experts said the altitude the missile tested on Sunday reached meant it was launched at a high trajectory, which would limit the lateral distance it traveled.

But if it was fired at a standard trajectory, it would have a range of at least 4,000km (2,500 miles), experts said.

Kim Dong-yub, of Kyungnam University's Institute of Far Eastern Studies in Seoul, said he estimated a standard trajectory would give it a range of 6,000km.

Japan said the missile flew for 30 minutes before dropping into the sea between North Korea's east coast and Japan. The North has consistently test-fired missiles in that direction.

"The launch may indeed represent a new missile with a long range," said Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, referring to the estimated altitude of more than 2,000 km.

"It is definitely concerning."

In Washington, the White House said Trump "cannot imagine Russia is pleased" with the test as the missile landed closer to Russia than to Japan.

‘Clear violation’

Speaking in Beijing, Dmitry Peskov, Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, told reporters Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping had discussed the situation on the Korean peninsula, including the latest missile launch and expressed "mutual concerns" about growing tension.

Putin is in Beijing for a conference on a plan for a new Silk Road. Delegations from the United States, South Korea and North Korea are also there.

The launch, at 5.27am Seoul time, came two weeks after North Korea fired a missile that disintegrated minutes into flight, marking its fourth consecutive failure since March.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who took office on Wednesday, held his first National Security Council in response to the launch, which he called a "clear violation" of UN Security Council resolutions, his office said.

"The president said while South Korea remains open to the possibility of dialogue with North Korea, it is only possible when the North shows a change in attitude, said Yoon Young-chan, Moon's press secretary.

Moon won Tuesday's election on a platform of a moderate approach to North Korea and has said he would be willing to go to Pyongyang under the right circumstances, arguing dialogue must be used in parallel with sanctions.

China, the North's sole main ally which nevertheless objects to its weapons programs, called for restraint and for no one to exacerbate tension.

"China opposes relevant launch activities by North Korea that are contrary to Security Council resolutions," China's foreign ministry said in a statement.

The launch will also complicate Moon's efforts to mend ties with China that have been strained by a decision by South Korea's former government to deploy a US anti-missile defence system aimed at defending against North Korea, but which China sees as a threat to its security.