North Korea confirms it fired Hwasong-17 ICBM

Aljazeera reported that North Korea has confirmed it fired an intercontinental ballistic missile and that it was the Hwasong-17, known as the country’s “monster missile”.

The launch of the banned missile was detected by neighbours South Korea and Japan on Thursday, hours before South Korean President Yook Suk-yeol was due to fly to Tokyo for a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

It was the latest in a series of weapons tests that have coincided with Freedom Shield – the large-scale joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea that began on Monday and that Pyongyang regards as a rehearsal for invasion.

Confirming the ICBM test on Friday, North Korea’s state media said it was intended to demonstrate a “tough response posture” and was a response to the “provocative and aggressive” military drills.

Pyongyang said the missile travelled at a maximum altitude of some 6,000 km (3,700 miles) and flew some 1,000 km (620 miles) “before accurately landing on the preset area in the open waters off the East Sea of Korea,” also known as the Sea of Japan.