North Korea’s ICBM Prompts Brief Warning to Shelter in Japan

Jeong-Ho Lee and Jon Herskovitz
Updated ·4 min read
3

(Bloomberg) -- North Korea launched a suspected intercontinental ballistic missile Thursday toward waters off Japan’s main northern island of Hokkaido, prompting a brief warning for residents to take shelter from the threat.

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Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said North Korea fired one missile on a lofted trajectory that was possibly an ICBM-class rocket, which fell outside of the country’s territory. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected one intermediate-to-long range ballistic missile launched from near Pyongyang at around 7:23 a.m. that flew for about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles).

The missile did not pose any immediate threat to people on land, leading to the warning being lifted, officials in Japan said. But it served a reminder of a bevy of weapons Kim Jong Un’s regime has rolled out in recent months to deliver a nuclear strike as it refuses to engage in disarmament-for-aid talks that have been stalled for years.

There’s a possibility North Korea may have tested a new type of solid-fuel ballistic missile, a South Korean Defense Ministry official told reporters. At a military parade in February, North Korea rolled five canisters for an apparent new solid-fuel ICBM through the streets of Pyongyang, showing off a future weapon that would be easier to deploy and quicker to fire off than its current arsenal of liquid-fuel ICBMs.

Read: Kim Jong Un Puts New ICBM, And a Potential Heir, on Parade

“This launch is a brazen violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions and needlessly raises tensions and risks destabilizing the security situation in the region,” US National Security Council Spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement.

Tokyo and Seoul also denounced the latest launch, which was the most powerful rocket Pyongyang has fired since March 16, when it shot off a Hwasong-17 ICBM designed to deliver a nuclear warhead to the US mainland. That test came just hours before the leaders of America’s allies, South Korea and Japan, held a historic summit in Tokyo.

Kim said that launch was meant to “strike fear into the enemies” as the US stepped up its joint military exercises with South Korea. The leader also brought his preteen daughter to that missile test, in a signal to the outside world that there is another generation waiting in the family dynasty forged in the Cold War and it will depend on nuclear weapons for its survival.

On Saturday, North Korea is set to celebrate the birthday of state founder Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of the current leader. The day is one of the biggest events on the country’s calendar.

Earlier this month the US, South Korea and Japan held joint naval drills off the peninsula in a move that angered North Korea. The last time similar drills were held in 2022, Pyongyang fired its first missile over Japan in five years.

The two-day anti-submarine and rescue drills were held in international waters off South Korea’s Jeju Island and included vessels from the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier group.

The latest launch came after leader Kim this week called for “practical and offensive” war capabilities as his state issued a fresh warning to the US over joint military drills and cut communications links with South Korea used to reduce tensions on their heavily armed border.

North Korea has fired 16 ballistic missiles since Feb. 18, which included three ICBMs and new projectiles to deliver nuclear strikes against South Korea and Japan.

Some defense stocks in Japan, such as Ishikawa Seisakusho Ltd. and Hosoya Pyro-Engineering Ltd. opened higher in early Thursday trading while the so-called “peace” stocks expected to benefit from improved inter-Korean ties dropped, under-performing the broader benchmark.

In late March, North Korea released photos of Kim inspecting the state’s biggest display of warheads since he took power about a decade ago, indicating the leader has no intention of abandoning his atomic arsenal. Weapons experts said the images indicate Pyongyang has made progress in miniaturizing its warheads and could lead to more testing to verify their capabilities.

Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of the leader, has warned Pyongyang would turn the Pacific into a “firing range” if the US continued drills. She also hinted the state could start testing whether its warhead designs can withstand the heat of reentering the atmosphere.

Pyongyang has demonstrated its missiles could fly as far as the US but there are questions as to whether the warheads would be able to stay intact to reach their targets.

North Korea put on its biggest display of ICBMs during a military parade in Pyongyang in February. Kim Jong Un oversaw the event, with his daughter, called the “precious child” by state media, on hand to watch from a seat of honor.

--With assistance from Erica Yokoyama, Lily Nonomiya, Sangmi Cha and Jordan Fabian.

(Updates with missile flight data and statement from US.)

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