North Korea launches biggest ever ICBM with ‘potential to strike entire US mainland’

Test may involve the new Hwasong-17, North Korea’s most advanced ICBM to date

People sit near a television showing a news broadcast with file footage of a North Korean missile test, at a railway station in Seoul (AFP via Getty Images)

North Korea has launched an intercontinental ballistic missile that has the potential to strike the entire US mainland, the Japanese defence minister said on Friday.

The ICBM flew around 1,000 km before it landed in Japan’s exclusive economic zone, reaching a maximum altitude of around 6,100km, the South Korean military said.

It was North Korea’s second suspected test of banned long-range missiles this month, and its eighth launch this year.