Advertisement

       SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

       Supported by

       SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

       ？North Korea Test-Fires Intermediate-Range Ballistic Missile

       The launch, the first by the North this year, indicates that the country may be developing a new missile that could threaten U.S. military bases in the region.

       Share full article

       Read in app

       A news broadcast on Sunday in Seoul with file footage of a North Korean missile test. Credit...Jung Yeon-Je/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

       By Choe Sang-Hun

       Reporting from Seoul

       Published Jan. 14, 2024Updated Jan. 16, 2024, 11:05 a.m. ET

       Get it sent to your inbox.

       North Korea launched an intermediate-range ballistic missile off its east coast on Sunday, an indication, analysts said, that it has started testing a new and harder-to-intercept weapon capable of reaching American military bases in the Western Pacific, including those on Guam.

       The ？missile was launched from near Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, on Sunday afternoon, but it did not fly over Japan, as some of the IRBMs North Korea has launched in the past have. Instead, it fell in waters between North Korea and Japan？, covering a distance of 621 miles, South Korean military officials said.

       The launch was the North’s first missile test since it fired a Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile on Dec. 18.

       North Korea tested the Hwasong-18, its first solid-fuel ICBM, for the first time in April 2023 and launched the same kind of missile two more times last year, a sign that the country was increasingly shifting to solid-fuel ballistic missiles. Because missiles that use solid fuel are easier to transport and faster to launch than liquid-fuel missiles, they are more dangerous.

       North Korea has tested an array of solid-fuel short-range ballistic missiles since the collapse of direct diplomacy in 2019 between its leader, Kim Jong-un, and then-President Donald J. Trump.

       So far, ？all of its intermediate-range ballistic missiles,？ including the Hwasong-12, ？rely on liquid fuel.

       Subscribe to The Times to read as many articles as you like.

       Choe Sang-Hun is the lead reporter for The Times in Seoul, covering South and North Korea. More about Choe Sang-Hun

       A version of this article appears in print on Jan. 15, 2024, Section A, Page 5 of the New York edition with the headline: North Korea Tests Missile That’s Harder To Intercept . Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

       Share full article

       Read in app

       Advertisement

       SKIP ADVERTISEMENT