Why In News

• North Korea conducted its longest-range missile test since 2017, after Japan and South Korea reported a suspected ballistic missile had been launched into the sea from the country’s east coast.
• The Japanese and South Korean militaries said the missile was launched on a lofted trajectory, apparently to avoid the territorial spaces of neighbours, and reached a maximum altitude of 2,000 km and travelled 800 km before landing in the sea.
• The flight details suggest the North tested its longest-range ballistic missile since 2017, when it twice flew intermediate-range ballistic missiles over Japan and, separately, three intercontinental ballistic missiles that demonstrated the potential to reach deep into the American homeland.

North Korea Statement

• North Korea confirmed it had tested two long range cruise missiles.

About Missile’s

Ballistic missile –

• Ballistic missile, a rocket-propelled self-guided strategic-weapons system that follows a ballistic  trajectory to deliver a payload from its launch site to a predetermined target.
• Ballistic missiles can carry conventional high explosives’  as well as chemical, biological or nuclear
• They can be launched from aircraft, ships, and submarines  in addition to land-based silos and mobile platforms.

Intercontinental ballistic missile

• ICBM, in full Intercontinental ballistic missile, Land-based, nuclear-armed ballistic missile with a range of more than 3,500 miles (5,600 km).
• Only the United States, Russia, and China field land-based missiles of this range.
• The first ICBMs were deployed by the Soviet Union in 1958; the United States followed the next year and China some 20 years later.