As President Biden traveled to Europe this week to hunker down with NATO leaders over the continuing crisis in Ukraine, another issue halfway around the globe emerged. According to Japanese and South Korean officials, North Korea on Thursday fired off a banned intercontinental ballistic missile, its first one since 2017, reports Axios. Japan and South Korea estimate the ICBM flew at least 600 miles, at an altitude of more than 3,700 miles—"higher and farther" than the November 2017 missile, per the Washington Post—before landing in Japan's economic zone off the coast of the northern island of Hokkaido. Multiple outlets note the move raises a red flag on a weapon that could prove a threat to the United States mainland.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki called the suspected launch "a brazen violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions" and said that North Korea must "come to the table" now to negotiate in good faith. "The door has not closed on diplomacy, but Pyongyang must immediately cease its destabilizing actions," Psaki noted in her statement. Leader Kim Jong Un imposed a moratorium in 2018 on ICBM launches and nuclear tests. South Korea's military says it fired off several missiles of its own in response to Thursday's incident, reports Sky News. That nation's Defense Ministry also notes it's trying to assess if Thursday's launch, the North's 11th this year, involved the new Hwasong-17 ICBM system, which Pyongyang unveiled at a 2020 military parade, per the Post. (More North Korea stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
