Seoul: N. Korea fired old ICBM, not new big one, last week

By HYUNG-JIN KIM
Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea has dismissed North Korea’s claim to have launched a newly developed intercontinental ballistic missile last week. It accuses the country of firing a less powerful existing weapon and fabricating data following an earlier failed launch. North Korea said it launched a Hwasong-17 missile, its longest-range developmental ICBM, last Thursday, in its biggest weapons test in years. Seoul’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday that it has determined that what North Korea fired wasn’t a Hwasong-17 but a Hwasong-15, another ICBM that North Korea successfully tested in 2017. It says the flight details of Thursday’s launch were similar to those of the Hwasong-15, not the Hwasong-17.