Tested in the DPRK on Tuesday, October 19, a short-range ballistic missile overcame 430-450 km, reaching a maximum altitude of 60 km. This was reported by Yonhap News Agency with reference to the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the South Korean armed forces.
According to the military, a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) was tested in the DPRK.
The launch of North Korean shells on October 19 took place after the DPRK tested several new weapons systems in September. Then the DPRK launched two ballistic missiles towards the Sea of Japan, which fell in the exclusive economic zone of Japan.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Tuesday criticized the missile launches conducted by Pyongyang this month. According to him, they were a violation of UN Security Council resolutions.
At the same time, on October 16, Kishida reported that Japanese troops could launch preventive strikes against missile bases on the territory of a potential enemy. He added that hypersonic and ballistic missile technologies continue to develop, so Tokyo needs to revise its national defense strategy as soon as possible.
On September 29, Pyongyang tested a new type of hypersonic missile, the Hwasong-8. Commenting on the launch of this rocket, Konstantin Asmolov, a leading researcher at the Center for Korean Studies at the Institute of the Far East of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said in an interview with Izvestia that South Korean specialists are somewhat surprised, since no one expected Pyongyang to develop a hypersonic missile at such a rapid pace.
