North Korea launches longest ever intercontinental ballistic missile

North Korea launched a new intercontinental ballistic missile on Thursday, which recorded its longest ever flight time and height in its first test in almost a year.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered the missile test and was at the launch site, calling the launch “an appropriate military action” to show North Korea’s resolve to respond to its enemies’ moves that have threatened the North’s safety, according to its Defence Ministry.

The United States, South Korea and Japan had also identified the weapon as an ICBM and condemned the launch as raising tensions. The launch came as Washington warned that North Korean troops in Russian uniforms are heading toward Ukraine, likely to augment Russian forces and join the war.

North Korea confirmed the launch hours after its neighbours detected the firing of what they suspected was a new, more agile weapon targeting the mainland US. The statement was unusually quick since North Korea usually describes its weapons tests a day after they occur.

“I affirm that the DPRK will never change its line of bolstering up its nuclear forces,” Kim said, according to a North Korean Defence Ministry statement carried by state media.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea could have tested a new, solid-fueled long-range ballistic missile. Missiles with built-in solid propellants are easier to move and hide and can be launched quicker than liquid-propellant weapons.

JCS spokesperson Lee Sung Joon said the launch was possibly timed to the US election in an attempt to strengthen North Korea’s future bargaining power. He said the North Korean missile was launched on a high angle, causing it to reach more height than distance, apparently to avoid neighbouring countries.

Japanese Defence Minister Gen Nakatani told reporters the missile’s flight duration of 86 minutes and its maximum altitude of more than 7000 kilometres exceeded corresponding data from previous North Korean missile tests. Lee, the South Korean military spokesperson, said South Korea has a similar assessment on Thursday’s launch.

Both South Korea and Japan condemned the North Korean launch for posing a threat to international peace and they said they’re closely coordinating with the US over the latest North Korean weapons test. Lee said that South Korea and the US plan “sufficient” bilateral military exercises and trilateral ones involving Japan in response to North Korean threats.

North Korean soldiers continue towards Ukraine

In the past two years, Kim has used Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a window to ramp up weapons tests and threats while also expanding military cooperation with Moscow. South Korea, the US and others have recently accused North Korea of dispatching thousands of troops to support Russia’s warfighting against Ukraine. They’ve said North Korea has already shipped artillery, missiles and other convectional arms to Russia.

North Korea’s possible participation in the Ukraine war would mark a serious escalation. South Korea, the US and their partners also worry about what North Korea could get from Russia in return for joining Russia’s war against Ukraine. Aside from his soldiers’ wages, experts say Kim Jong Un likely hopes to get high-tech Russian technology that can perfect his nuclear-capable missiles and build a reliable space-based surveillance system. Kim could also want Russian fighter jets and help to modernise North Korea’s conventional weapons.

On Wednesday, Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said North Korean troops wearing Russian uniforms and carrying Russian equipment are moving toward Ukraine, in what he called a dangerous and destabilising development. Austin said “the likelihood is pretty high” that Russia will use the troops in combat.

Austin spoke at a news conference in Washington with South Korean Defence Minister Kim Yong-hyun. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol last week raised the possibility of supplying Ukraine with weapons while stressing that his government “won’t sit idle” over North Korea’s reported troop dispatch.

South Korea said Wednesday that North Korea has sent more than 11,000 troops to Russia and that more than 3000 of them have been moved close to battlefields in western Russia.