North Korea has confirmed it carried out a test of a new submarine-launched ballistic missile on Wednesday, describing it as a “significant achievement”, a day after Pyongyang and Washington agreed to resume nuclear talks.
The launch marks a departure from the tests of shorter-range missiles North Korea has carried out in recent months.
State-run Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) reported the new-type of SLBM was a “Pukguksong-3.”
“The new-type ballistic missile was fired in vertical mode,” KCNA said. “The test-firing scientifically and technically confirmed the key tactical and technical indexes of the newly-designed ballistic missile and had no adverse impact on the security of neighbouring countries.”
The missile was launched from near Wonsan, a city in Kangwon Province on North Korea’s east coast Wednesday morning and flew toward the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, for a distance of 450 kilometres (280 miles) before landing in waters off Japan. It reached an altitude of 910 kilometres (565 miles).
After Wednesday’s launch, the US State Department called on North Korea “to refrain from provocations, abide by their obligations under UN Security Council resolutions, and remain engaged in substantive and sustained negotiations to do
their part to ensure peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and achieve denuclearisation”.
It is understood North Korea has been willing to offer partial denuclearisation in return for the US lifting crippling sanctions and providing security guarantees.
