North Korea fires three missiles

SEOUL • North Korea fired three missiles yesterday, including one thought to be its largest intercontinental ballistic missile, after Mr Joe Biden ended his first Asia trip as US President where he agreed to new measures to deter the nuclear-armed country.

South Korea's deputy national security adviser Kim Tae-hyo said the North also appeared to have conducted multiple experiments with a detonation device in preparation for its seventh nuclear test but that the launch was unlikely to occur in the coming days.

The South Korean joint chiefs of staff said the three missiles were fired from the Sunan area of the North's capital, Pyongyang, where its international airport has become a hub of missile tests.

The first missile appeared to be the North's largest intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the Hwasong-17, while a second unspecified missile appeared to have failed mid-flight, said Mr Kim, the deputy national security adviser. The third missile was a short-range ballistic missile (SBRM), seen as aimed at improving its nuclear delivery capability, he said.

"We think it had political intentions, to test our new administration's security readiness... and send a strategic message to South Korea and the United States after President Biden left," Mr Kim told a briefing.

A military source in Seoul told Reuters the second and third missiles were believed to be KN-23 SRBMs, which were first tested in 2019 and which experts said were designed to evade missile defences by flying on a lower, "depressed" trajectory.

South Korea had described the North's Hwasong-17 test in March as a failure, and the launch ended a self-imposed 2017 moratorium on long-range missile and nuclear testing amid stalled denuclearisation talks with Washington.

In yesterday's test, the suspected ICBM flew 360km to a maximum altitude of 540km, while the SRBM flew 760km to a maximum altitude of 60km, the South said. In response to the missile launches, the US and South Korea held combined live-fire drills, including surface-to-surface missile tests.

North Korea has conducted a flurry of missile launches this year. Washington and Seoul officials also recently warned that Pyongyang appeared ready to resume nuclear weapons tests for the first time since 2017, possibly during Mr Biden's visit.

The White House said Mr Biden, who left Japan on Tuesday, had been briefed on the launches.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin and his Japanese counterpart Minister Hayashi Yoshimasa strongly condemned the missile launches as a "clear violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions", the US State Department said.

REUTERS