Name: North Korea fires banned missile in longest flight yet | BBC News
Uploaded: 2024-10-31T19:50:34.000Z
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North Korea has test-fired a suspected intercontinental ballistic missile which came down in the sea off the coast of Japan.

According to the Japanese government, the missile flew higher and for longer than previous launches.

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Its estimated flying time was nearly 90 minutes.

It reached an altitude of 7,000 kilometers.

The U.S. described the missile test as a flagrant breach of UN resolutions.

Our Tokyo correspondent Shaima Khalil has been giving us the We've had confirmation from Pyongyang that they launched an ICBM, an intercontinental ballistic missile, and according to their official media, it says that the launch set a record exceeding their previous tests.

And I must say it is rare that we get on the day confirmation from North Korea about missile launches.

Normally they wait to the next day and that tells you that they want to get their message out as fast as they can.

We've also been getting more details from the Japanese authorities here and the South Korean authorities as well.

The defense ministry in Tokyo said that the ICBM was in the air for about an hour and a half, specifically an hour and 26 minutes, and that's longer than any North Korean ICBM that they've tested before.

Defense officials in Seoul say that North Korea seems to want to develop weapons that fly farther and higher.

And according to them, the test was possibly aimed at increasing the payload of the missile, essentially for a rocket to carry multiple warheads and be more resistant to missile defense systems.

The ICBM, we understand, flew for about a thousand kilometers to the east before it landed just outside Japanese territorial waters off the coast in Hokkaido.

And the projectile flew at a sharply high angle, and that implies that it could fly or that it could go into the Pacific, far into the Pacific, reaching the United States had it been flown at a more horizontal angle.

All of it makes for a very worrying and anxiety-inducing picture for Washington and elsewhere here in the region.

This launch comes as the relationship between North and South is increasingly deteriorating.

There is an increasingly aggressive rhetoric from Pyongyang towards Seoul.

But we're also a week away from the U.S. presidential elections, and observers are saying that what Pyongyang is trying to do is to strengthen its negotiating hand with whoever comes into the White House.

Whoever that is, they're going to be dealing with an angrier and a more emboldened North Korea.

Well, the missile launch comes after South Korea and the U.S. accused Pyongyang of sending troops to Russia to U.S.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that North Korean troops wearing Russian uniforms and carrying Russian equipment are moving towards Ukraine.

Washington believes that around 10,000 North Korean soldiers have been deployed to Russia's Kursk region, where Ukraine launched an incursion three months ago.

Security Council, Russia's U.N. ambassador dismissed reports of North Korean troops aiding Russia in Ukraine, calling them mere assertions.

Given the statements about the North Korean soldiers, it shouldn't surprise anyone because they're all barefaced lies.

They're trying to distract from truly significant problems that threaten international peace and security.

And we see that again when we listen to the lamentations by the U.S. and their allies.

And the performance today has one goal to try and post-facto justify their own decision to send NATO troops so as to shore up the regime of the outdated dictator.

 Those comments from Russia's U.N. ambassador.