<Anchor>
Following yesterday (17th), North Korea launched a ballistic missile today.
The military authorities are analyzing the exact specifications such as the launch point, altitude and range, but so far the military is assuming that the missile launched today is an ICBM, an intercontinental ballistic missile.
Connect with reporters from the Department of Defense.
Reporter Bae Jun-woo, please tell me.
<Reporter>
Yes, our military captured one shot, believed to be a long-range ballistic missile launched into the East Sea from the Sunan area of Pyongyang at around 10:15 am today.
Our military is analyzing specific specifications such as flight distance, altitude, and speed. According to the Japanese Ministry of Defense, the missile fell within the waters 210 km west of Oshimao Island in Hokkaido, that is, inside Japan's exclusive economic zone.
The missile flew in the East Sea after flying for over an hour, and it seems that North Korea launched an ICBM at high altitude.
North Korea's ICBM launch is only 15 days since the 3rd.
On the 3rd, North Korea fired a missile believed to be a Hwasong 17, but at the time, the Joint Chiefs of Staff judged it to have failed in normal flight.
After launch, it was found that the first and second stage propellants were normally separated, but the flight of the warhead failed.
At that time, the missile fell outside Japan's exclusive economic zone in the East Sea.
North Korea's ICBM launch is the eighth this year, starting on February 27th.
Yesterday, North Korea fired a short-range ballistic missile in protest of South Korea, the U.S. and Japan's strengthening of extended deterrence cooperation.
Today, the ROK and US military authorities decided to hold a missile countermeasure policy consultative body at a working level for the first time in order to respond to North Korea's series of missile provocations.