The United States “strongly condemns the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea for its test of a long-range ballistic missile,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement Thursday morning.
The test was North Korea’s 13th such attempt since the beginning of the year, and the flight time and altitude mark the longest missile flight ever launched from Pyongyang. The missile landed just 93 miles west of Hokkaido, according to the Japanese government, and if the launch angle were altered, it would be capable of striking the West Coast of the U.S.
The test occurred while President Joe Biden and other world leaders gathered in Brussels, Belgium, for NATO and G-7 summits responding to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“The President and his national security team are assessing the situation in close coordination with our allies and partners. This launch is a brazen violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions and needlessly raises tensions and risks destabilizing the security situation in the region,” Psaki added Thursday morning. “This action demonstrates that the DPRK continues to prioritize its weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs over the well-being of its people.”
She additionally urged “all countries to hold the DPRK accountable for such violations and call on the DPRK to come to the table for serious negotiations” and demanded that North Korea “must immediately cease its destabilizing actions.”
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The White House has warned for weeks that North Korea might scale up its missile launches, and Psaki further vowed on Thursday that the U.S “will take all necessary measures to ensure the security of the American homeland and Republic of Korea and Japanese allies.”
