New Delhi:
North Korea on Wednesday test-fired a "new-type" of submarine-launched ballistic missile. The missile test comes days ahead of the expected resumption of nuclear negotiations between the US and North Korea after a seven-month hiatus. It is to be noted that the ballistic missile, which was able to carry a nuclear weapon, was the North Korea’s 11th test this year.
According to a report of the state-run Korea Central News Agency (KCNA), the missile was launched from near Wonsan, a city in Kangwon Province on North Korea's east coast and flew toward the East Sea, for a distance of 450 kilometres before landing in waters off Japan. The missile reached an altitude of 910 kilometres.
KCNA said that the test of the Pukguksong-3 missile in the waters off its east coast was successful. "The new-type ballistic missile was fired in vertical mode," KCNA added.
"The test-firing scientifically and technically confirmed the key tactical and technical indexes of the newly-designed ballistic missile and had no adverse impact on the security of neighbouring countries," KCNA reported.
According to report of the news agency PTI, Pukguksong (Polaris) is a solid-fuel missile in the North Korea’s weapons arsenal. North’s first test-launched a Pukguksong-1 missile from an underwater platform in 2016. However, a year later, the North test-launched a Pukguksong-2, a land-based variant of the missile.
Immediately, after the test of Pukguksong-3 missile, US State Department called on North Korea "to refrain from provocations, abide by their obligations under UN Security Council resolutions, and remain engaged in substantive and sustained negotiations to do their part to ensure peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and achieve denuclearization."
On the other hand, Japan lodged a protest, saying the missile landed inside its exclusive economic zone for the first time since November 2017.
