Officials speculate North Korean ICBM Failure in Flight; Allies Extend Big Drills

North Korea: On Thursday, North Korea launched a number of ballistic missiles, perhaps an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM), which led to a shelter-in-place notice for some residents of central and northern Japan.

Tokyo later clarified that a missile had not flown over Japan, despite an early government warning to that effect.

The missile may have been an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which are North Korea's longest-range weapons and are built to transport a nuclear payload to the other side of the earth, according to officials in South Korea and Japan.
Without going into any detail, Yonhap news agency claimed that South Korean officials believe the ICBM failed in flight. Japanese and South Korean defence ministry spokespeople denied to confirm the potential failure.

Yasukazu Hamada, the minister of defence for Japan, claimed that after losing track of the missile over the Sea of Japan, the government had to retract its claim that it had flown over Japan.

Former fleet commander of the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force and retired vice admiral Yoji Koda claimed the projectile's loss of radar tracking indicated a failure launch.
He explained, "It suggests at some point in the missile's flight path there was some malfunction, and it actually came apart.

The debris from the bomb would have been moving quickly and could have crossed over Japan even though it fell in the sea between the Korean peninsula and Japan, Koda continued.

South Korean and American officials claim that North Korea has conducted a number of unsuccessful ICBM tests this year.

According to a statement from State Department spokesperson Ned Price, the United States strongly denounced North Korea's ICBM launch. He declared, "This launch is clearly in contravention of numerous United Nations Security Council resolutions."

It also highlights the danger posed by North Korea's illegitimate development of WMD and ballistic missiles, Price continued.

The launches followed Pyongyang's demand that South Korea and the United States cease their extensive military drills, claiming that such "military rashness and aggression can no longer be accepted."
According to the report, a recent flurry of missile launches and other military operations were in opposition to these manoeuvres.

With hundreds of South Korean and American jets, including F-35 fighters, executing round-the-clock simulated sorties, the allies have been conducting one of the largest air exercises ever.

The partners decided to prolong the drills into Friday, when they were originally slated to end, the South Korean Air Force said in a statement following Thursday's ICBM launch.

The statement, which used the initials of South Korea's official name, stated that "a strong joint defence posture of the ROK-U.S. alliance is vital under the current security situation that is escalating due to North Korean provocations."

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Serious Alerts

On Thursday, North Korea also fired off two short-range ballistic missiles.

The launches come after North Korea fired a record-breaking 23 missiles on Wednesday, including one that for the first time touched down off the coast of South Korea.

After the onslaught on Wednesday, South Korea issued unusual air raid warnings and fired its own missiles in retaliation. The South's transportation ministry revealed on Thursday that after being shut down for around 24 hours, air services had resumed operation in the missile's area of impact.

According to the J-Alert Emergency Broadcasting System, inhabitants of the Japanese prefectures of Miyagi, Yamagata, and Niigata were advised to seek indoor shelter after the first launch on Thursday.

According to Hamada, "We identified a launch that had the potential to fly over Japan and as a result, triggered the J Alert; however, upon monitoring the flight, we established that it had not crossed over Japan."

According to him, the first missile had a range of 750 km and was launched to an altitude of around 2,000 km (1,242 miles). A missile is launched high into orbit in this type of flight path, known as a "lofted trajectory," in order to avoid passing over nearby nations.

According to the Joint Chiefs of Staff of South Korea, the long-range missile was fired from a location close to Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea.

The military of South Korea and the Japanese coast guard reported a second and third launch from North Korea around an hour after the initial launch.

Both of those, according to South Korea, were short-range missiles launched from Kaechon, located north of Pyongyang.

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Regional Response

During a phone discussion on Thursday, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun-dong vehemently denounced North Korea's recent missile launches as "deplorable and immoral."

A few minutes later, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida made a few brief remarks to reporters, calling North Korea's repeated missile launches "an injustice" that "absolutely cannot be forgiven."

Zhao Lijian, a spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry, avoided directly commenting on the missile launches or potential sanctions against North Korea on Thursday during a routine news briefing. Instead, Zhao repeated Beijing's standard position that Beijing hoped all parties could resolve disagreements amicably through dialogue.

According to a statement from the National Security Council's Adrienne Watson, U.S. President Joe Biden and his national security team were "assessing the situation," and the country would take "all necessary actions" to maintain security.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol called the flights "territorial incursion" after North Korea launched missiles on Wednesday, one of which fell less than 60 kilometres (40 miles) off the coast of South Korea. Washington criticised the launches as "reckless."

For the first time in five years, North Korea flew a ballistic missile over Japan on October 4, prompting a warning for locals to seek shelter. It was the furthest a missile had ever been shot from North Korea.

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