NK Missile Test

[Anchor Lead]

North Korea has fired a ballistic missile into the East Sea, breaking a 75-day lull in provocations from Pyongyang. The regime launched the missile in the wee hours of Wednesday morning from Pyongannam-do Province.

[Pkg]

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said that North Korea fired a long-range ballistic missile into the East Sea from Pyongsong in Pyongannam-do Province at 3:17 a.m. Wednesday Korean time. The missile's maximum altitude reached 4,500 kilometers, while flying a distance of 960 kilometers. It's the first North Korean missile to be fired from a high angle and have an altitude of over four thousand kilometers. It is also the first missile to be launched from the Pyongsong area. Another unusual factor is that it was fired in the early morning hours. The South Korean and U.S. military authorities are analyzing the details of the launch. Given its maximum altitude, there is a high chance that it was an intercontinental ballistic missile with a flying range of over ten thousand kilometers. About six minutes after the launch, the South Korean military held a missile strike drill in the East Sea for about 20 minutes in response to Pyongyang's provocation. The drill targeted the area where the missile took off. The exercise deployed the Army missile brigade, the Navy's Aegis destroyers, and the Air Force's KF-16 fighter jets. One Hyunmoo-2 missile with a firing range of 300 kilometers, one ship-to-ground Haeseong-2 missile with a firing range of one thousand kilometers, and one air-to-surface SPICE 2000 missile with a firing range of 57 kilometers were launched during the exercise. The signs of a pending missile launch were first captured in the North last week. On November 23, the military spotted the movements of a mobile missile launch vehicle in the vicinity of Pyongyang. Two days ago, a missile launch signal was detected, putting the South Korean military on high alert. The military is closely monitoring the situation in the North and preparing for additional provocations. The missile firing comes 75 days after North Korea's previous launch of its Hwasong-12 missile from the Sunan area in Pyongyang.