North Korea fires intercontinental ballistic missile with range to strike entire US

North Korea's flurry of missile tests doesn't seem to be stopping. The isolated nation on Friday (November 18) fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that landed near Japanese waters. This missile test shows that North Korea now has the ability to launch nuclear strikes on all of the US mainland.

What happened: According to South Korean and Japanese estimates, the North Korean missile flew about 6,000-6,100 kilometers at a maximum altitude of 1,000 kilometers, reported AP.

The "unidentified ballistic missile" was fired from Sinpo into the sea east of the peninsula, Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

Third launch this week: North Korea earlier this week, on Tuesday (November 15), had fired a suspected submarine-launched ballistic missile into the sea. A smaller missile launch was done by North Korea on Thursday (November 17).

Japan's condemns missile test: Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida condemned North Korea for firing the ballistic missile while Japanese Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada told reporters the latest missile was capable of flying as far as 15,000 km.

North Korea's missile programme: According to the Reuters, this has become a record-breaking year for North Korea's missile programme, after it resumed testing ICBMs for the first time since 2017 and broke its self-imposed moratorium on long-range launches as denuclearisation talks stalled.

South Korea's reaction: South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff called the launch "a grave provocation and serious threat" to undermine international and regional peace and security.

A warning to the US? North Korea sees the US military presence in the region and its drill with the South Korean armed forces as hostility and a threat to its existence. Pyongyang has earlier said its recent series of weapons launches were its response to what it called provocative military drills between the United States and South Korea, reported AP.