N. Korea calls test success

Photo: The Canadian Press

People watch a TV news program showing a file image of a missile launch conducted by North Korea.

North Korea fired a solid-fuel ballistic missile Sunday that can be harder for outsiders to detect before launch and later said the test was hailed as perfect by leader Kim Jong Un.

The official Korean Central News Agency confirmed Monday the missile was a Pukguksong-2, a medium-to-long range ballistic missile also launched in February. South Korea and the U.S. had earlier described Sunday's missile as medium-range.

The Pukguksong (Polaris)-2 is a land-based version of a submarine-launched missile. The missile advances North Korea's weapons capabilities because solid-fuel missiles can be fired faster and more secretly than those using liquid fuel, which much be added separately and transported to a launch site using trucks that can be seen by satellites.

The rocket was fired near the county of Pukchang in South Phyongan province and flew eastward about 500 kilometres (310 miles), an official from South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said. It reached an altitude of 560 kilometres (347 miles), the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity, citing office rules.

The U.S. Pacific Command said it tracked the missile before it fell into the sea.

KCNA said the test was intended to verify technical indexes of the weapon system and examine its adaptability under various battle conditions before deployment to military units. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered the launch from an observation post and approved its deployment after analyzing the results with officials and finding them perfect, the state news agency said.

The February launch was the North's first missile test after President Donald Trump took office. Sunday's launch followed one a week earlier of a rocket that flew higher and for a longer time than any missile the North has previously launched and could one day reach targets in Hawaii and Alaska. North Korea called that launch a success test of a missile that could carry a heavy nuclear warhead.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Sunday it was too early to know if the international pressures being exerted on North Korea to discourage its weapons programs were having an impact.

"We're early in the stages of applying the economic pressure as well as the diplomatic pressure to the regime in North Korea," Tillerson said on "Fox News Sunday." ''Hopefully they will get the message that the path of continuing their nuclear arms program is not a pathway to security or certainly prosperity. The ongoing testing is disappointing. It's disturbing."

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday that Seoul and Washington believe Sunday's test provided North Korea with unspecified "meaningful data" on its push to improve the credibility of missile technology. But spokesman Roh Jae-cheon said the allies believe more analysis is required to verify whether the North has achieved a re-entry technology, which would return a warhead safely back into the atmosphere, for the missile.

South Korea held a National Security Council meeting Sunday to discuss the latest launch, which came hours after new President Moon Jae-in named his new foreign minister nominee and top advisers for security and foreign policy.