GOING BALLISTIC

North Korea’s Launch of a Suspected ICBM Backfires

The flight of the rocket—one of three launched early Thursday—is “presumed to have ended in failure.”

North Korea’s Thursday morning launch of a suspected intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) looks to have failed, according to South Korean officials. The new type of ICBM, which was launched from the suburbs of Pyongyang, appears to have failed in flight after the propellant and warhead sections separated, defense sources told South Korean media. “North Korea’s ICBM launch is presumed to have ended in failure,” the South Korean military said, according to the Yonhap news agency. Japanese defense minister Yasukazu Hamada said the long-range missile flew for around 460 miles before it “disappeared” from radar over the Sea of Japan around 680 miles from the Japanese coast. The missiles sparked emergency shelter warnings in Japan, with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida calling the launches “outrageous and absolutely intolerable.”