Silke Jasso
North Korea launched a medium-range ballistic missile on Sunday, a launch South Korea is calling “reckless and irresponsible.”
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The missile flew east for roughly 310 miles and landed in the sea, having reached a maximum height of 347 miles — this according to a South Korean official speaking on the condition of anonymity.
The launch came a week after North Korea successfully tested a new midrange missile that it said could carry a heavy nuclear warhead. Experts said that rocket flew higher and for a longer time than any other missile previously tested by North Korea, and that it could one day reach targets as far away as Hawaii and Alaska.
Under the watch of third-generation dictator Kim Jong Un, North Korea has been aggressively pursuing a decades-long goal of putting a nuclear warhead on an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the U.S. mainland.
North Korea conducted two nuclear tests last year alone, possibly improving its ability to make nuclear weapons small enough to fit on long-range missiles. The country has also conducted a slew of rocket launches as it continues to advance its arsenal of ballistic weapons, which also include midrange solid-fuel missiles that could be fired from land mobile launchers or submarines.
If North Korea did indeed fire the Pukguksong-2 again, it might be part of attempts to stabilize the system’s functions before it operationally deploys the missiles, said Kim Dong-yub, an analyst at Seoul’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies.
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Kim said there’s also a possibility that the North is conducting engine tests and other experiments as it pushes for the development of a solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile that could potentially reach the U.S. mainland. If the North ever obtains a solid-fuel ICBM, it would likely be a rocket powered by a cluster of several Pukguksong-2 engines, Kim said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
