North Korea tests suspected intercontinental ballistic missile | Weapons News

Weapon flew towards the Japanese island of Hokkaido as Pyongyang ratchets up tension in the region.

North Korea has fired what Seoul said appeared to be an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), a day after launching a smaller missile and warning of “fiercer military responses” to the United States boosting its security presence in the region.

Japan’s Coast Guard also reported the launch saying the weapon was expected to fall into the sea southwest of the northern island of Hokkaido.

South Korea’s defence ministry said the missile was probably an ICBM, North Korea’s longest-range weapon, which is designed to carry a nuclear warhead.

On Thursday, North Korea fired a short-range ballistic missile as its foreign minister, Choe Son Hui, warned of “fiercer military responses” to US moves to boost its military presence in the region, saying Washington was taking a “gamble it will regret”.

In a statement carried by state media, Choe condemned a Sunday trilateral summit of Japan, South Korea and the US during which the countries’ leaders criticised Pyongyang’s weapons tests and pledged greater security cooperation.

North Korea has carried out an unprecedented number of ballistic missile tests, which are banned under United Nations resolutions imposed over Pyongyang’s missile and nuclear weapons programmes, and there are concerns it may soon carry out its first nuclear test since 2017.

Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, told Al Jazeera that more countries needed to hold the North accountable for its actions, noting the country was “developing illegal nuclear weapons and missiles, plotting long-term struggle against its neighbor, and egregiously abusing human rights.”

“Its pariah state behavior is not just a problem for Washington and its allies but a growing global threat,” Easley said in an email.

After a meeting last week on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Cambodia, leaders of Japan, South Korea and the US warned Pyongyang against conducting such a test, with US President Joe Biden reiterating that Washington’s commitment to defend Seoul and Tokyo was “backed by the full range of capabilities, including nuclear”.

The leaders, including Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol also “strongly condemned” North Korea’s “unprecedented number of ballistic missile launches” and pledged to “forge still-closer trilateral links, in the security realm and beyond”.