North Korea fired a ballistic missile on a test flight, early on the morning of Oct. 31. The test came only hours after U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin met with South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun for the 56th U.S.-Republic of Korea Security Consultative Meeting at the Pentagon yesterday, and less than a week before the Nov. 5 U.S. elections. Whether the timing of the test flight had anything to do with those events, as experts are speculating in the Western news media, or not, the context is certainly notable.
“North Korea’s ballistic missile appears to be an ICBM fired on a lofted trajectory,” the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a text message sent to reporters, reported Yonhap. “Amid a heightened readiness posture, our military maintains full readiness as we closely share North Korean ballistic information with U.S. and Japanese authorities,” it added.
Korea Herald later reported that the missile was launched at a deliberately raised angle to reach a maximum altitude of 7,000 km, a record height. The missile flew for approximately 86 minutes, the longest time of any North Korean missile to date, traveling about 1,000 km before falling into the waters between North Korea and Japan, according to South Korean and Japanese assessments.
