Chinese state media reported on Wednesday (August 24) that North Korea fired a submarine-launched missile. The rocket flew about 500 km (311 miles) towards Japan, a show of improving technological capability for the isolated country that has conducted a series of launches in defiance of UN sanctions.
“Our news continues: according to Yonhap News, at dawn North Korea fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile into the sea to the east of the peninsula, which eventually landed within Japan’s air defence identification zone, at present North Korea has yet to confirm these reports. And now for our journalist’s report,” news reader Yan Yuxin told viewers.
The missile was fired at around 5:30 a.m. (2030 GMT) from near the coastal city of Sinpo, where satellite imagery shows a submarine base is located, officials at South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Defence Ministry told Reuters.
The projectile reached Japan’s air defence identification zone (ADIZ), an area of control designated by countries to help maintain air security, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported.
The distance of the flight indicated the North’s push to develop a submarine-launched missile system was paying off, officials and rocketry experts said.
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2016
