North Korea launched what appeared to be its first intercontinental ballistic missile in more than four years, as Kim Jong Un finally abandoned a testing freeze that had underpinned an unprecedented wave of talks with the U.S.
The missile was launched from the Sunan area outside Pyongyang on Thursday, reaching an altitude of 3,900 miles and traveling 670 miles, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said. That’s higher and farther than North Korea’s last ICBM test in November 2017, suggesting that Kim had successfully launched a long-anticipated weapon believed to be capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads.
North Korea typically doesn’t comment on its tests until the next day. The country has described recent rocket tests from the same area as efforts to launch a satellite.
