North Korea has tested a long-range ballistic missile that is theoretically capable of striking anywhere on the US mainland, Japan officials said, in the regime’s first round of missile tests for about a month.
The missile appeared to have flown about 1,000km (620 miles) and reached a maximum altitude of more than 6,000km before landing in the sea east of the Korean peninsula on Monday.
Shingo Miyake, Japan’s parliamentary vice-minister of defence, said the missile could have a range of over 15,000km, depending on the trajectory and size of the warhead. “In which case the whole of the US territory would be within the range,” Miyake said, adding that authorities would need to confirm the missile was an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
“Based on the flying distance and the maximum altitude of the ballistic missile launched this time, we think it is an ICBM-class ballistic missile, but we are analysing further details,” he said.
The projectile appeared to have fallen into the sea outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone off the northernmost main island of Hokkaido after flying for 73 minutes. There have been no reports of damage to aircraft or ships in the area.
Residents of Hokkaido are particularly wary of North Korean missiles, some of which have flown over the island during test flights, triggering alerts to the public to take cover.
The Japanese government lodged a protest and called a meeting of its national security council. The prime minister, Fumio Kishida, condemned the launch, as well as the test-firing of a shorter-range missile on Sunday night.
The launches are “not only a clear violation of UN security council resolutions but also a threat to peace and stability of the region and we strongly condemn them”, he said.
The launches posed a threat to North Korea’s neighbors, a US state department spokesperson said. “These launches, like the other ballistic missile launches Pyongyang has conducted this year, are in violation of multiple United Nations security council resolutions,” the spokesperson said.
North Korea has tested several ICBMs that are capable, in theory, of reaching targets anywhere in the US, although some experts believe the regime has yet to perfect the technology that would enable the missiles to carry multiple nuclear warheads over such long distances.
Observers said the North’s back-to-back launches were likely to be a protest against moves by South Korea and the US to bolster their nuclear deterrence plans in the face of Pyongyang’s growing nuclear threat.
Senior US and South Korean officials met in Washington over the weekend and agreed to update their nuclear deterrence and contingency strategies, and incorporate nuclear operation scenarios in their combined military exercises next summer.
Washington and Seoul have increased the intensity of their joint military drills, including the temporary deployment of strategic US assets such as aircraft carriers, nuclear-capable bombers and a nuclear-armed submarine in and near South Korea.
The North has responded with characteristically fiery rhetoric, while moving closer to Russia and China in an apparent attempt to form a “counter-alliance” against the US and its allies.
The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, met Vladimir Putin in September, and media reported that China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, met the North’s vice-minister of foreign affairs, Pak Myong-ho, in Beijing on Monday ahead of the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
“The traditional friendship between China and North Korea ... is a valuable asset shared by both sides,” Wang told Pak.
On Sunday, North Korea’s defence ministry criticised Seoul and Washington’s decision to include nuclear operation scenarios in their joint military drills, describing it as an open threat by “hostile forces” to potentially use nuclear weapons against the North.
Their “attempt to use armed forces against the DPRK will face a preemptive and deadly counteraction,” the state-run KCNA news agency said, using the country’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Animosities between the two Koreas deepened after North Korea launched its first military reconnaissance satellite into space on 21 November in violation of UN bans.
South Korea, the US and Japan strongly condemned the launch, viewing it as an attempt by the North to improve its missile technology as well as establish a space-based surveillance system.
South Korea announced plans to resume frontline aerial surveillance in response. North Korea quickly retaliated by restoring border guard posts, officials in Seoul said. Both steps would breach a 2018 inter-Korean deal on easing frontline military tensions.
The Associated Press contributed to this report