(Bloomberg) — North Korea fired a suspected ballistic missile that may have flown for at least an hour, indicating the test of a longer-range rocket before a planned trip by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol to Japan.
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South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff sent a notice of the launch at 7:15 a.m. Thursday and Japanese national public broadcaster NHK said the missile likely fell outside of the country’s exclusive economic zone at 8:18 a.m. While further details were not immediately available, the flight duration could indicate an intercontinental ballistic missile was fired on a lofted trajectory.
North Korea last test-fired an ICBM designed to carry a warhead to the US mainland last month. That missile flew for about 66 minutes and reached an altitude of about 5,700 kilometers (3,540 miles).
Yoon is due to leave for Tokyo on Thursday, trying to end several years of feuding over compensation for Japan’s use of Korean forced labor during its 1910-45 occupation of the peninsula. It’s the first visit by a South Korean leader since 2019, and will include a meeting with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, the first such summit on Japanese soil in more than a decade.
The latest launch also coincided with joint US-South Korean military drills starting this week that have been denounced by Pyongyang.
On Monday, the US and South Korea commenced 11 days of Freedom Shield military exercises, which are among the most significant drills between the two allies in years. The exercises are aimed at strengthening their defense capabilities against North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats.
North Korea has condemned such drills, considering them as a prelude to a potential invasion and nuclear war.
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Read: Japan Needs South Korea to Defend Against Kim Jong Un’s Missiles
(Updates and recasts.)
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