North Korea fired an unidentified ballistic missile on Sunday morning that exploded almost immediately after launch, defying warnings from the Trump administration to avoid any further provocations.
U.S. and South Korean military officials are conducting further analysis of the launch at Sinpo on North Korea’s eastern coastline. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence is set to arrive in Seoul on Sunday for a previously planned trip to Asia.
“U.S. Pacific Command is fully committed to working closely with our allies in the Republic of Korea and in Japan to maintain security,” the military said in a statement on Sunday.
The incident occurred a day after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw an elaborate military parade in the center of Pyongyang as the world watched for any provocations that risk sparking a conflict with the Trump administration. Kim’s regime has test-fired several ballistic missiles this year in his quest to develop a device that can carry a nuclear warhead to North America.
President Donald Trump this month dispatched a warship fleet toward the Korean Peninsula as the U.S. weighed retaliation for any missile or nuclear test. Trump has threatened to act unilaterally if China — North Korea’s main ally and benefactor — fails to do more to curb its neighbor’s activities.
Kim showed off a range of missiles at the parade on Saturday, including submarine-launched ballistic missiles for the first time and what appeared to be a new intercontinental ballistic missile, South Korea’s Yonhap News reported. In 2012, North Korea unveiled long-range missiles that some arms analysts dismissed as fake.
Missile Tests
Here is a timeline of North Korea’s ballistic missile launches this year:
- Feb. 12: Fires a solid-fuel missile that travels about 500 kilometers (310 miles), drawing a joint rebuke from Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at a summit in Florida
- March 6: Launches four projectiles that reach as far as Japan’s exclusive economic zone
- March 22: Tests a missile that fails
- April 5: Fires a missile that flies about 60 kilometers on the eve of Trump’s first meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping
Kim has launched dozens of projectiles and conducted three nuclear tests since he came to power after his father’s death in 2011, and claimed in January to be in the final stages of preparations to test-fire an intercontinental ballistic missile.