North Korea Releases Images From Space After Testing Longest-Range Missile Since 2017

The US on Sunday urged North Korea to join peace talks with Washington with no further preconditions to advance the prospect of de-nuclearising the Korean peninsula. Pyongyang has called on the Biden administration to lift previous sanctions as a condition to resume the stalled dialogue between the two governments.

North Korea has released images of the successful test flight of a Hwasong-12 ground-to-ground intermediate and long-range ballistic missile, the longest-range missile tested by the Asian nation since 2017.

The images from space are believed to have been taken by a camera installed on the missile’s warhead but there was another set of images showing the missile taking off.

According to North Korean state media, the test on Sunday was conducted under the joint supervision of the Academy of Defence Science, the Second Economic Commission and other relevant institutions.

“It was conducted by the highest-angle launch system from the north-western part of the country toward the waters of the East Sea of Korea in consideration of the security of neighbouring countries,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

Unlike previous occasions, the news agency wouldn’t say whether North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was present at the time of the missile launch.

South Korean and Japanese military experts cited by UK daily newspaper the Guardian claimed that the missile flew for around 800 kilometres and reached a maximum altitude of 2,000 kilometres. They added that the ballistic missile could have the potential to reach the US’ Pacific territory of Guam and even the western tip of Alaska.

Experts also reckon that the ballistic missile launch - the seventh this month - is intended to galvanise the Joe Biden administration into resuming the stalled nuclear talks between the two nations.

Three meetings were held between former US President Donald Trump and Kim about the possibility of denuclearising the Korean peninsula but not a single such summit has taken place between Biden and the North Korean leader.

The Biden administration this month imposed its first set of sanctions on North Korean entities in the wake of six ballistic missile tests conducted by Pyongyang since September last year. At the time, Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson said in a statement that the sanctions targeted North Korea’s "continued use of overseas representatives to procure goods for weapons illegally".

US officials say that the continuous development of the North Korean ballistic missile and nuclear programme is a violation of specific United Nations (UN) Security Council resolutions.

However, the US has said that it remains committed to diplomacy.

"What we have seen in recent days … only underscores our belief that if we are going to make progress, we will need to engage in that dialogue," US State Department spokesman Ned Price said this month.