IN-DEPTH: Is North Korea’s New Missile a Game-Changer?
North Korea’s 40-minute test launch of a new solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile on April 13 caused evacuations on Japan’s Hokkaido Island, and analysts to sound the alarm that the new missile would make it easier for the regime to launch a nuclear attack.
The launch off North Korea’s east coast into the Sea of Japan was documented in real-time by South Korea’s military, which classified it as an intermediate or long-range missile.
On April 14, in a statement issued to state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), North Korea announced it had successfully launched a three-stage Hwasong-18 ICBM.
“A new type of intercontinental ballistic missile was test fired on Thursday as the key means of strategic military force,” KCNA said, describing the test as a “miraculous success.”…