Pyongyang test-fired a total of eight short-range ballistic missiles on Sunday, the South Korean Yonhap news agency reports citing the South Korean military.
The plumes of exhaust as North Korea’s ballistic missile ascended skywards on Wednesday signified the 14th test this year.
North Korea fired a ballistic missile toward the East Sea on Wednesday, South Korea's military said, in the recalcitrant regime's latest saber-rattling that comes less than a week before President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol's inauguration.
“If North Korea deliberately carried out the missile launch while the international community is distracted by the “Russian invasion of Ukraine, such an act is absolutely unforgivable. We cannot overlook considerable missile and nuclear advancement.”
The new ICBM was carried on a transporter erector launcher (TEL) with 22 wheels, indicating that it is longer than the Hwasong-15, which is carried by a 18-wheel TEL, Yonhap News Agency quoted the KCNA report as saying.
Director General ISPR Major General Asif Ghafoor said that the missile was 'capable of delivering multiple types of warheads up to 290 km'.
The two devices were fired from the Wonsan area on the east coast at dawn and flew around 250 kilometres, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
The SLBM might have a range of up to 14,000 kms and be equipped with 10 independent guided nuclear warheads.
The test came a day after India conducted second test of air-launch version of Brahmos supersonic cruise missile.
With two missile launches in a week, Pyongyang is walking a fine line between increasing pressure on the US and not derailing nuclear negotiations -- all while giving itself room to escalate, analysts say.
