Anchor: After issuing a slew of denouncements and threats against what it claimed were airspace violations by U.S. reconnaissance aircraft, North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile(ICBM) on Wednesday. The provocation prompted President Yoon Suk Yeol to convene an emergency National Security Council(NSC) standing committee session in the midst of his trip to Lithuania for the NATO Summit.
Choi You Sun reports. 

Report: North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile(ICBM) toward the East Sea on Wednesday morning.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff(JCS) said the North fired a long-range ballistic missile at a high angle from Pyongyang at around 10 a.m., which traveled one-thousand kilometers before falling into the sea.

Japan's defense ministry said the missile flew for 74 minutes at a maximum altitude of six-thousand kilometers and fell 250 kilometers west of Hokkaido, outside the country's exclusive economic zone. 

With intelligence authorities in the South and the U.S. analyzing the missile's characteristics, the JCS said it has reinforced surveillance and vigilance while maintaining a readiness posture in coordination with the U.S.

President Yoon Suk Yeol, who is in Lithuania to attend the North Atlantic Treaty Organization(NATO) Summit, convened an emergency session of the standing committee of the National Security Council(NSC) in response to the missile launch.

Yoon said there will be consequences to unlawful acts committed by Pyongyang, before ordering officials to strengthen the enforcement of extended deterrence through Seoul and Washington's Nuclear Consultative Group(NCG), set to convene for the first time next week.

The president asked officials to take necessary unilateral and joint military and diplomatic measures with the U.S. against the latest provocation, while also pledging to call for strong unity from the international community on the matter at the NATO gathering.

The launch comes a day after the North denounced a regular reconnaissance flight by U.S. aircraft with a claim that it violated the country’s airspace and eastern exclusive economic zone, before threatening to take a strong military action, including shooting down the planes.

The regime is expected to continue seeking to escalate tensions leading up to the anniversary of the Korean War armistice on July 27, which the North celebrates as Victory Day.

Pyongyang previously launched a short-range ballistic missile toward the East Sea on June 15. The last time the regime tested a solid-fuel ICBM was when it fired the new Hwasong-18 on April 13.
Choi You Sun, KBS World Radio News.

[Photo : YONHAP News]