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N. Korea's growing threat

A ballistic missile fired from a North Korean submarine on Wednesday flew about 500 kilometres, the longest distance achieved by the North for such a weapon, Seoul officials said, putting all of South Korea, and possibly parts of Japan, within its striking distance.

North Korea already has a variety of land-based missiles that can hit South Korea and Japan, including U.S. military bases in those countries. But its development of reliable submarine-launched missiles would add weapons that are harder to detect before liftoff.

South Korea's military condemned the launch as an "armed protest" by North Korea against the start of annual South Korean-U.S. military drills, but acknowledged it was an improvement over previous tests of similar missiles.

"North Korea's nuclear and missile threats are not imaginary threats any longer, but they're now becoming real threats," South Korean President Park Geun-hye said of the launch. "Those threats are coming closer each moment."

The United Nations Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting on the launch at the request of the United States and Japan. The UN said the council would hold closed consultations on the launch late Wednesday afternoon.

State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said in a statement that the U.S. strongly condemned the launch and called on North Korea to "refrain from actions and rhetoric that further raise tensions in the region." She said the missile launch marked the latest in an "accelerating campaign" of missile tests that violate multiple UN Security Council resolutions.

"The U.S. commitment to the defence of our allies including the Republic of Korea and Japan in the face of these threats remains ironclad," she said.

The missile, fired from a submarine off the eastern North Korean coastal town of Sinpo, reached into Japan's air defence identification zone, according to Seoul and Tokyo officials. The U.S. Strategic Command said it tracked the launch of the presumed KN-11 missile into the Sea of Japan.

Its 500-kilometre flight puts all of South Korea within its range if it is fired near the two countries' border.

Missiles of such capability could also potentially strike parts of Japan, including U.S. military bases on the island of Okinawa, considering the operational range of North Korea's Sinpo-class submarines, which can move about 1,000 kilometres underwater at a time, said analyst Kim Dong-yub at Seoul's Institute for Far Eastern Studies.

North Korea fired two missiles from submarines earlier this year, but South Korean defence officials believe they exploded in midair after flying less than 30 kilometres.



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