By testing what appears to be an ICBM, North Korea's ruler Kim Jong-un has broken his moratorium on long-range missile tests after almost four years.

According to the South Korean military, the rocket was launched at 2:34 p.m. local time in the Sunan outskirts of the capital Pyongyang and flew 1,080 kilometers towards Japan.

South Korea and Japan classified the projectile as an ICBM.

Patrick Welter

Correspondent for business and politics in Japan based in Tokyo.

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Analysts suspect that the missile was the Hwasong-17, which North Korea first displayed at a parade in Pyongyang in October 2020.

The projectile is also known as a "monster rocket".

According to experts, the missile is designed to carry several warheads.

With the performance now shown, she could probably also reach destinations on the American east coast.

With a flight time of 71 minutes and an altitude of 6200 kilometers, it was the longest and highest flight of a North Korean missile to date.

According to Japanese information, the rocket fell at around 3:44 p.m. local time about 150 kilometers off the Oshima Peninsula on Hokkaido in the Sea of ​​Japan, which North Korea calls the East Sea.

The missile was apparently more powerful than the ICBM tested by the regime in November 2017.

The projectile at that time flew for 53 minutes and reached a height of more than 4000 kilometers.

The United States and its allies in Asia strongly criticized the missile launch.

The rocket launch is a brazen violation of several United Nations Security Council resolutions, the White House said in Washington.

The door to diplomacy has not closed, but Pyongyang must immediately end its destabilizing actions.

South Korea's President Moon Jae-in also sees a violation of the resolutions.

With the test, the North broke the moratorium on nuclear tests and ICBMs that leader Kim Jong-un gave to the international community, Moon was quoted as saying.

In Brussels, Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida criticized the launch of the ICBM as irresponsible and unacceptable.

In April 2018, Kim announced a moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests, paving the way for talks with then-US President Donald Trump.

Analysts suspect that the ruler wants to gain the attention of the United States and a better negotiating position for possible talks with a series of missile tests since the beginning of the year.

At the same time, the war in Ukraine taught Kim that abandoning nuclear weapons does not pay off, observers in Seoul say.

In January, Kim had hinted that he could lift the moratorium.