The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) fired a submarine-launched missile on August 24 that flew about 500 km (311 miles) toward Japan, a show of improving technological capability for the isolated country that has conducted a series of launches in defiance of UN sanctions.
The missile was fired at around 5:30 a.m. (4:30 p.m. ET) from near the coastal city of Sinpo, where satellite imagery shows a submarine base is located, officials at the Republic of Korea (RoK)'s Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Defence Ministry told Reuters.
The projectile reached Japan's air defense identification zone (ADIZ), an area of control designated by countries to help maintain air security, the RoK's Yonhap News Agency reported.
The distance of the flight indicated the DPRK's push to develop a submarine-launched missile system was paying off, officials and rocketry experts said.
The launch comes two days after rival RoK and the United States began annual military exercises in the RoK that DPRK condemns as a preparation for invasion, and has threatened retaliation.
"I think it was probably successful," said Jeffrey Lewis of the California-based Middlebury Institute of International Studies. "We don't know the full range, but 500 km is either full range or a full range on a lofted trajectory. Either way, that missile works."
The US Strategic Command said it had tracked what it believed to be a KN-11 submarine-launched ballistic missile and confirmed it flew about 300 miles.
