North Korean media announced today that the intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) the regime launched on Saturday was a Hwasong-15, the missile with the second longest potential range in its arsenal that it first tested in 2017.
The North Korean military carried out a "sudden launch" of the missile, which fired at a very steep angle, according to the KCNA news agency.
The General Department of Missiles was in charge of launching the missile from the Sunan International Airport in Pyongyang, explains the text of the state news agency.
The trial, carried out at around 5:22 p.m. local time on Saturday (8:22 GMT), "was organized suddenly without prior notification" based on "an emergency order issued in the early hours of February 18."
According to KCNA, the projectile traveled 989 kilometers for 4,015 seconds (1 hour and six minutes) and reached a peak of 5,768.5 kilometers, data that is in line with what was detailed on Saturday by the South Korean and Japanese armies.
Japan's Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said on Saturday that, launched on a normal trajectory, the missile could travel about 14,000 kilometers, enough to reach any region on earth except South America.
North Korea had only tested the Hwasong-15 once so far; It was in November 2017 in the midst of an escalation of verbal threats between Pyongyang and then US President Donald Trump.
The North Korean news agency text published today argues that "military threats" from South Korea and the US "are becoming serious, to the point that they cannot be ignored."
Pyongyang on Friday threatened an "unprecedented" response to the annual spring military exercises that Seoul and Washington have begun to finalize in March and that the regime described as "preparations for a war of aggression."
In addition, next week the South Korean and US militaries will conduct a tabletop exercise at the Pentagon simulating a regime nuclear attack.
In another statement also published today by KCNA and signed by the sister of the North Korean leader, Kim Yo-jong, it is assured that Pyongyang will activate a "very powerful and overwhelming" response to any hostile act by the allies.
Kim Jong-un's sister states in the text that the US "should cease all its actions that pose a threat to our state security and stop tarnishing the dignity of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (official name of the country) thinking always in their own future safety".
North Korea carried out a record number of missile launches last year, around fifty, in many cases in response to joint maneuvers by the allies and the deployment of US strategic assets on the peninsula.
