The U.S. Strategic Command said its systems detected a failed North Korean ballistic missile launch on Saturday.
The launch occurred Saturday night near the northwestern city of Kusong, the Pentagon said.
Recommended Stories
“We strongly condemn this and North Korea’s other recent missile tests, which violate UN Security Council resolutions explicitly prohibiting North Korea’s launches using ballistic missile technology,” Pentagon spokesman Gary Ross said in a statement.
According to North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), the missile launch “did not pose a threat to North America.”
Officials said the missile is presumed to be a Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missile, which according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, is capable of reaching Japan and Guam.
“This provocation only serves to increase the international community’s resolve to counter the DPRK’s prohibited activities, including through implementing existing UN Security Council sanctions,” Ross said. “Our commitment to the defense of our allies, including the Republic of Korea and Japan, in the face of these threats, is ironclad.”
In April and May, North Korea had four failed tests of the missile. According to CSIS, two more tests came in June, with one breaking up in the air and the other traveling 250 miles before falling into the Sea of Japan.
In September, three more ballistic missiles were fired from a base in the west of North Korea, which fell into the Sea of Japan to the east of the country. Those three landed less than 200 miles from Japan’s Okushiri island.
Pyongyang soon after ran a test explosion of a nuclear warhead.
