North Korea tests possible ICBM, says Japan

What would motivate North Korea’s missile tests? Seoul, South Korea (CNN) North Korea fired a possible intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) into the waters off Japan’s western coast on Thursday, the Japanese deputy defense minister said. Makoto Oniki told a news conference that the North Korean missile flew at an altitude of 6,000 kilometers (3,728 miles), which would suggest it is a “new type of intercontinental ballistic missile.” The missile landed inside Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone, 170 kilometers (106 miles) west of Cape Tappi on the northern tip of Japan’s main island Honshu, Oniki said. If confirmed, Thursday’s launch would be North Korea’s longest-range missile launch since November 2017, when it sent a Hwasong-15 missile to an altitude of 4,475 kilometers (2,800 miles). Thursday’s launch is North Korea’s 11th of the year, including one on March 16 that is presumed to have failed, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. Pyongyang’s other most recent launches, on February 26 and March 4, were likely aimed at testing a new ICBM system, the US Department of Defense said earlier this month. North Korea unsettles region: six missiles in two weeks North Korea after the recent wave of missile launches. The move is a signal from the Biden administration that it needs to strengthen its military posture to ensure that the United States and its allies in the region, such as South Korea and Japan, are protected against missile tests by North Korea. The command said they have “ordered intensified intelligence gathering, surveillance and reconnaissance activities in the Yellow Sea, as well as heightened readiness among our ballistic missile defense forces in the region.” Last week, the US military held exercises in and around the Korean Peninsula to show its readiness in the wake of North Korean activity, including simulating ballistic missile defense systems. The US Army’s 35th Air Defense Artillery Brigade moved to a remote location, “setting up its wartime defensive position, emplaced the Patriot missile system, and executed air and missile defense operations in a simulated combat,” US Forces Korea said in a statement. And at sea, F-35 and F/A-18 fighter jets flying from the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln along with US Air Force assets based in the region flexed their muscles in the Yellow Sea off to the western coast of South Korea, according to a statement from the US Navy’s Seventh Fleet in Japan. Thursday’s possible release also comes just two weeks after South Korea elected a new conservative president, Yoon Suk Yeol, who is expected to take a tougher line against North Korea than the current incumbent, Moon Jae-in. .