Reuters. Footage aired by North Korean broadcaster KRT on Tuesday (January 7) showed what the country said was a successful launch of a new intermediate-range hypersonic ballistic missile (IRBM) test-fired the day before, a move that has been condemned by South Korea.
The test-fire on Monday (January 6) occurred less than two weeks before U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who held unprecedented summits with Kim during his first term and has touted their personal rapport, returns to office. It was North Korea's first missile launch since November 5, and coincided with a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to South Korea, where he pledged bilateral and trilateral cooperation including Japan to respond to Pyongyang's growing military threats.
The missile was fired on the outskirts of Pyongyang and flew some 1,500 km (932 miles) at 12 times the speed of sound and reached the maximum altitude of nearly 100 km before accurately landing at a target off the east coast, said KCNA on Tuesday.
South Korea's acting president Choi Sang-mok said the launch poses a "serious threat" to security on the Korean Peninsula and worldwide, while Lee Sung-jun, spokesman for the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff, said South Korea believes that the flight distance and secondary peak altitude claimed by North Korea are "highly deceptive”.
