Dialing up pressure, North Korea tests long-range missile

By KIM TONG-HYUNG and MARI YAMAGUCHI
Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea has fired possibly its biggest intercontinental ballistic missile toward the sea, raising the ante in a pressure campaign aimed at forcing the US and other rivals to accept it as a nuclear power and remove crippling sanctions. The launch extended North Korea’s barrage of tests this year. Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters the missile possibly landed near Japanese territorial waters off the northern island of Hokkaido, calling the launch “an unforgivable recklessness.” South Korea criticized North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for breaking a self-imposed moratorium on ICBM tests and responded with live-fire drills of its own missiles. Some experts say the U.S. handling of the Ukraine war leaves Kim room to dial up the weapons testing activity.