N Korea fires ICBM as US &S Korea prepare for drills

SEOUL: North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on Saturday which landed in Japan’s exclusive economic zone, Seoul and Tokyo said, after Pyongyang warned of a strong response to upcoming US-South Korean military drills. According to the South Korean and Japanese militaries, the missile was fired on a high angle, apparently to avoid reaching the neighbours’ territories, and travelled about 900 kilometers at a maximum altitude of 5,700 kilometers during an hourlong flight.
The details were similar to North Korea’s Hwasong-17intercontinental ballistic missile test flight in November, which experts said demonstrated potential to reach the US mainland if fired on a normal trajectory.
Foreign ministers from the G7 group of industrialised nations on Saturday slammed North Korea’s “reckless behaviour”. “This act is in blatant violation of UN Security Council Resolutions, and threatens regional and international peace and security,” said a G7 statement issued by Japan’s foreign minister Hayashi Yoshimasa after talks in Munich. US secretary of state Antony Blinken, standing alongside his South Korean and Japanese counterparts on Saturday, urged countries to step up enforcement of sanctions against North Korea in response to its latest ballistic missile launch.