North Korea examined a brand new kind of intercontinental ballistic missile early Thursday that landed within the Sea of Japan, the primary ICBM take a look at performed by the nation since 2017. Experts consider the missile may have been the Hwasong-17, a “monster” ICBM first revealed in October of 2020, however there’s no affirmation on that hypothesis but.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff studies the ICBM was launched at 2:34 p.m. native time (1:34 a.m. ET) and the missile flew 671 miles, reaching an altitude of three,853 miles, in accordance with NK News. The missile was probably airborne for about 1 hour and 11 minutes, in accordance with the Japanese navy’s estimates, reported by Reuters.

This newest take a look at, which is essentially the most consequential in years, was the eleventh missile take a look at of the 12 months for North Korea, although the nation has examined different techniques adjoining to its nuclear capabilities in current months. South Korea virtually instantly responded with its personal take a look at on Thursday.

The final ICBM take a look at by North Korea earlier than Thursday’s occurred in November of 2017, when a Hwasong-15 flew for 53 minutes, reaching a top of two,780 miles and touring about 590 miles throughout the globe earlier than plunging into the Sea of Japan.

Before that, North Korea performed an ICBM take a look at on July 4, 2017, when the missile flew for about 45 minutes after touring about 2,300 miles in altitude and at a distance of roughly 621 miles earlier than touchdown within the Sea of Japan. Experts concluded on the time that such a missile would be capable of hit most main U.S. cities, although Washington D.C. would probably have been out of vary.

The take a look at on Thursday is the primary since early in President Donald Trump’s presidency. Trump infamously grew to become pleasant with Kim, however that didn’t cease the North Koreans from persevering with their nuclear weapons improvement program. And it was solely lately revealed that Trump requested rock musician Kid Rock his recommendation on what to do about North Korea whereas within the White House.

The world will be grateful that Trump isn’t on the helm proper now making an attempt to sport out a doable nuclear conflict with Secretary of Defense Rock, nevertheless it’s not clear that President Biden really has a deal with on any of this. All the typical individual can do is hope that cooler heads prevail and we don’t launch into World War III, regardless of who begins it.