After a thaw in US-North Korea relations facilitated in large part by President Trump, North Korea made a provocative move today and test launched an ICBM with a 15,000 Kilometer range.  After the launch, the North Korean government said it is “fully ready for a long standing-standing with the United States’.

 

The New York Times Reports–

“North Korea on Thursday launched its first intercontinental ballistic missile since 2017, dramatically escalating tensions with the Biden administration at a moment when the world has been gripped by the devastation in Ukraine.

The launch involved what appeared to be North Korea’s most powerful ICBM to date, and marked the end of a self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and ICBM tests that the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, announced before embarking on diplomacy with President Donald J. Trump in 2018.

While the new missile did not go far from the coast, its altitude of 3,852 miles — far higher than past tests — appeared to be meant to demonstrate to a weary world that North Korea could flatten the weapon’s trajectory and hit the continental United States with ease.”

Many considered the timing of the launch to be intentional as there is a meeting of some of the top military powers in the world today at the NATO headquarters to discuss the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.

 

North Korea’s new intercontinental ballistic missile flew 15x higher in space than orbit of International Space Station and 1,000 miles higher and almost 20 minutes longer than last ICBM test in 2017. Missile launch coincided with world leaders meeting at NATO headquarters today.

— Lucas Tomlinson (@LucasFoxNews) March 24, 2022