​North Korea Test-Fires Intermediate-Range Ballistic Missile

North Korea launched an intermediate-range ballistic missile off its east coast on Sunday, an indication, analysts said, that it has started testing a new and harder-to-intercept weapon capable of reaching American military bases in the Western Pacific, including those on Guam.

The ​missile was launched from near Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, on Sunday afternoon, but it did not fly over Japan, as some of the IRMBs North Korea has launched in the past have. Instead, it fell in waters between North Korea and Japan​, covering a distance of 621 miles, South Korean military officials said.

The launch was the North’s first missile test since it fired a Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile on Dec. 18.

North Korea tested the Hwasong-18, its first solid-fuel ICBM, for the first time in April 2023 and launched the same kind of missile two more times last year, a sign that the country was increasingly shifting to solid-fuel ballistic missiles. Because they are easier to transport and faster to launch than liquid-fuel missiles, they are more dangerous.