As this publication reported last night, North Korea launched an Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM), into the Sea of Japan. The South Korean Joint Chiefs and the Japanese Ministry of Defense were the first to report the launch.
At 2127 EST, the initial reports were made by South Korean media. The Japanese Coast Guard promptly warned commercial vessels to look out for debris and to not approach anything in the water.
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By 1148 EST, the Japanese Ministry of Defense had confirmed that the missile flew for 74 minutes from its launch at approximately 2103 EST. They also confirmed that the missile flew approximately 1000km at an apogee of 6000km, placing it outside of Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) by 250km (west of Okushiri Island in Hokkaido).
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— ??????? (@ModJapan_jp) July 12, 2023
This is the third North Korean ICBM launch of 2023 and the first missile launch in over a month as tensions between Pyongyang and Washington-Seoul-Tokyo flare. On July 9th, 2023, the North Korean Ministry of Defense threatened to shoot down U.S. reconnaissance plans in the Sea of Japan, an action that North Korea did execute in the 1969 which killed dozens of U.S. servicemembers.
South Korean President Yoon stood up the National Security Council and admonished North Korea for investing only in its missile program before boarding his flight to Vilnius, Lithuania for the NATO Summit. There he announced that he had secured military intelligence sharing with the alliance, a serious development in its struggle with the Hermit Kingdom to the North.
