People sit in front of a television screen showing a news broadcast with file footage of a North Korean missile test, at a train station in Seoul on January 4, 2026.
| Photo Credit: FP

North Korea launched a new intercontinental ballistic missile on Thursday (October 31, 2024) in its first test in almost a year of a weapon designed to threaten the U.S. mainland and occurring days ahead of the U.S. election.

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 has threatened the North’s safety, according to its Defense 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 neighbors detected the firing of what they suspected was a new, more agile weapon targeting the mainland U.S. The statement was unusually quick since North Korea usually describes its weapons tests a day after they occur.

South Korea and Japan condemned the North Korean launch

“I affirm that the DPRK will never change its line of bolstering up its nuclear forces,” Mr. Kim said, according to a North Korean Defense Ministry statement carried by state media. DPRK stands for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s official name.

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 U.S. election in an attempt to strengthen North Korea’s future bargaining power. He said the North Korean missile was launched on a high angle, apparently to avoid neighboring countries.

Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani told reporters the missile’s flight duration of 86 minutes and its maximum altitude of more than 7,000 kilometers (4,350 miles) 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.

KCNA said the flight characteristics of this launch exceeded those registered for its previous missile launches but did not detail the differences.

U.S. National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett had called the launch “a flagrant violation” of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions that “needlessly raises tensions and risks destabilizing the security situation in the region.” Mr. Savett said the U.S. will take all necessary measures to ensure the security of the American homeland and its South Korean and Japanese allies.

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 U.S. over the latest North Korean weapons test. Lee said that South Korea and the U.S. plan “sufficient” bilateral military exercises and trilateral ones involving Japan in response to North Korean threats.

Lee said the missile may have been fired from a 12-axle launch vehicle, the North’s largest mobile launch platform that it disclosed in September. The vehicle’s unveiling had prompted speculation North Korea could be developing an ICBM that is bigger than its existing ones.

North Korea has made strides in its missile technologies in recent years, but many foreign experts believe the country has yet to acquire a functioning nuclear-armed missile that can strike the U.S. mainland. They say North Korea likely possesses short-range missiles that can deliver nuclear strikes across all of South Korea.

One of the technological hurdles North Korea still faces is for its weapons to be capable of surviving the harsh conditions of atmospheric reentry. South Korean officials and experts earlier said North Korea may test-launch a ICBM on a normal angle to verify that capability.

Lee said a high-angle launch like Thursday’s test cannot examine a missile’s reentry vehicle technology. He said that more analysis is required to find why North Korea didn’t conduct a standard-trajectory launch on Thursday.

North Korea’s possible participation in the Ukraine war

In the past two years, Mr. 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 U.S. 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 U.S. 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 modernize North Korea’s conventional weapons.

On Wednesday (October 30, 2024), 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 destabilizing development. Mr. Austin said “the likelihood is pretty high” that Russia will use the troops in combat.

Mr. Austin spoke at a news conference in Washington with South Korean Defense 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 on Wednesday (October 30, 2024) that North Korea has sent more than 11,000 troops to Russia and that more than 3,000 of them have been moved close to battlefields in western Russia.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un observes what it says the test-firing of strategic cruisemissiles. | file photo
| Photo Credit: AP

North Korea launched several cruise missiles into the sea Saturday, South Korea’s military said, extending its weapons testing activities in response to the United States-South Korea summer military drills.

South Korea’s military detected the launches early Saturday morning off the North’s west coast, the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

The statement said South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities were analysing details of the launches. It said South Korea has boosted its surveillance posture and maintains a firm military readiness in close coordination with the United States.

The launches came two days after the U.S. and South Korean militaries wrapped up their 11-day training exercises that North Korea regards as a rehearsal for invasion. Washington and Seoul officials maintain their drills are defensive.

A day before the U.S.-South Korean training ended, North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea in a launch it said was meant to simulate “scorched earth” nuclear strikes on South Korea. The North said it was separately holding a command post exercise aimed at rehearsing an occupation of South Korea’s territory in the event of conflict.

On August 21, the day when the U.S.-South Korean drills began, North Korea’s state media said its leader Kim Jong Un observed cruise missile launches.

North Korea’s second attempt to place a military spy satellite in orbit failed August 24, but the country said it will make a third attempt in October.

Since the start of 2022, North Korea has performed more than 100 weapons tests — many of them ballistic launches, which are banned by United Nations Security Council resolutions. North Korea’s cruise missile tests aren’t prohibited, but they still pose a threat to its rivals because they are designed to fly at a lower altitude to evade radar detection. Analysts say the main missions of North Korean cruise missiles are striking incoming US warships and aircraft carriers in the event of war.

Foreign experts say Kim uses U.S.-South Korean military drills as a pretext to expand his missile and nuclear arsenals to boost leverage in future diplomacy with the United States. They say Kim seeks an international recognition as a legitimate nuclear state to get UN sanctions on the North lifted.

Seoul:

North Korea fired several cruise missiles towards the sea off the west coast of the Korean peninsula in the early hours of Saturday, according to the South Korean military.

Details of the launch are being analyzed by South Korean and US intelligence authorities, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

On Thursday state media KCNA reported that Pyongyang had conducted a simulated “scorched-earth” nuclear strike on targets across South Korea.

Seoul announced sanctions on Friday on five North Korean individuals and one company in response to Pyongyang’s launch of what it said was a space rocket last month.