Kim Jong Un personally oversaw Thursday’s launch of North Korea’s longest-range intercontinental ballistic missile as Pyongyang warned that its nuclear forces were “fully ready to thoroughly check and contain any dangerous military attempts of the US imperialists”.
Described by analysts as North Korea’s “monster missile”, the Hwasong-17 has an estimated ranged of more than 15,000km and was first revealed to the world at a night-time parade in Pyongyang in October 2020. It is thought to be the largest road-mobile liquid propellant ICBM in the world.
South Korea said the ICBM reached an altitude of more than 6,000km — the highest a North Korean missile has ever flown — and travelled 1,080km for about 71 minutes from its launch site near Pyongyang.