Tag: Missile Launch

North Korea launches intercontinental ballistic missile ahead of South Korea-Japan summit

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North Korea test-launched an intercontinental ballistic missile in a display of military might Thursday, just hours before the leaders of South Korea and Japan were to meet at a Tokyo summit expected to be overshadowed by North Korean nuclear threats.

The launch, the North’s first ICBM test in a month and third weapons testing this week, also comes as South Korean and U.S. troops continue joint military exercises that Pyongyang considers a rehearsal to invade.

South Korea’s military said the North Korean ICBM flew toward the Korean Peninsula’s eastern waters after being launched from North Korea’s capital, Pyongyang, around 7:10 a.m. The statement said South Korea’s military is maintaining readiness in close coordination with the United States.

United States Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement that the launch “does not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel, or territory, or to our allies.”

“The U.S. commitments to the defense of the ROK and Japan, remain ironclad,” the statement read.

People sit near a television showing a news broadcast with file footage of a North Korean missile test, at a railway station in Seoul, South Korea, on March 16, 2023.

ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP via Getty Images

National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement provided to CBS News that the U.S. “strongly condemns” the missile test, calling it a “flagrant violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions.”

“It only demonstrates that the DPRK continues to prioritize its unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs over the well-being of its people,” Watson said.

The Sunan neighborhood is the site of Pyongyang’s international airport and has emerged as a major testing site where the North launched most of its ICBMs in recent years, all flown on a high angle to avoid the territory of neighbors.

Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said the missile likely landed in the waters outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone after about an hour-long flight. The landing site is about 250 kilometers (155 miles) off the western island of Oshimaoshima, which is close to where other North Korean ICBMs fell in recent months after test-flights.

Thursday’s launch came hours before South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was to travel to Tokyo for a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida aimed at mending frayed ties and solidifying a trilateral security cooperation with the United States to counter North Korean threats.

After conducting a record number of missile tests last year, North Korea has extended its testing activities this year, including the Feb. 18 launch of its Hwasong-15 ICBM that is designed to strike the U.S. mainland. After that ICBM launch, North Korea said the test was meant to further bolster its “fatal” nuclear attack capacity against its rivals.

The North’s ongoing aggressive run of weapons tests has been widely expected; leader Kim Jong Un last week ordered his military to be ready to repel what he called “frantic war preparations moves” by his country’s rivals, referring to large ongoing drills between the U.S. and South Korea.

Pyongyang earlier this week fired cruise missiles from a submarine and sent short-range ballistic missiles across its territory into its eastern sea. Last week, North Korea also fired at least six short-range ballistic missiles from a western coastal area in an exercise supervised by Kim Jong Un, an event state media described as a simulated attack on an unspecified South Korean airfield.

The U.S.-South Korean drills that began Monday and are scheduled to continue until March 23 include computer simulations and live-fire field exercises.

Last year, Pyongyang test-fired more than 70 missiles, including nuclear-capable ones that target South Korea, Japan and the U.S. mainland. North Korea said many of those tests were a warning over previous South Korean-U.S. military drills.

The South Korea-Japan summit was arranged after Yoon’s government last week took a major step toward repairing bilateral ties strained by Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

His plan – to use local funds to compensate Koreans forced into industrial slave labor during the colonial rule without contributions from Japanese companies that employed them – has met fierce domestic opposition but reflects Yoon’s resolve to improve ties with Japan and boost Seoul-Tokyo-Washington security cooperation.

Under Kishida, Tokyo has also made a major break from its post-World War II principle of self-defense only, adopting a new national security strategy in December that includes the goals of acquiring preemptive strike capabilities and cruise missiles to counter growing threats from North Korea, China and Russia.

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March 15, 2023
Russia hits Ukraine with deadly missile barrage, cutting power again to occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant

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Dnipro, Ukraine — Russia hit Ukraine on Thursday with its most punishing attacks in nearly a month. A barrage of missiles and explosive drones rained down in a blistering assault that struck cities from the capital Kyiv to the vital southern port of Odesa, and all the way to the far-western city of Lviv.

At least nine people were killed, according to Ukrainian officials, and millions more were plunged into the cold and dark as the attacks hit power infrastructure — including cutting the vital electricity supply yet again to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe’s largest atomic energy facility.

A view of Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant as the war between Russia and Ukraine continues, from Nikopol, Ukraine, March 3, 2023.

Mustafa Ciftci/Anadolu Agency/Getty

Ukraine’s nuclear power operator Energoatom said the “last power line between the occupied Zaporizhzhia NPP [Nuclear Power Plant] and the Ukrainian power system was cut off as a result of rocket attacks.” The company said it was the sixth time the sprawling facility had been cut off from the nation’s electricity grid since Russian troops captured it last year. Russia accused Ukrainian forces of causing the outage, as it has in all previous instances.

Whenever the electricity supply is cut, the plant relies on old diesel generators to keep its vital cooling systems running, but they can only do the job for about 10 days.

“The countdown has begun. If it is impossible to renew the external power supply of the station during this time, an accident with radiation consequences for the whole world may occur,” Energoatom warned Thursday.

Rafael Grossi, the head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog agency, the IAEA, issued a fresh appeal Thursday for a demilitarized safe-zone around the Russian-held plant, saying he was “astonished” by the fact that such a sensitive facility was still being put at risk by the war.

“Each time we are rolling a dice. And if we allow this to continue time after time then one day our luck will run out,” Grossi told the agency’s Board of Governors in Austria, according to a statement. “This is the sixth time — let me say it again — sixth time, that ZNPP has lost all off-site power and has had to operate in this emergency mode. Let me remind you, this is the largest nuclear power station in Europe. What are we doing? How can we sit here in this room this morning and allow this to happen? This cannot go on. I am astonished by the complacency.”

In January the IAEA announced plans to establish a “continuous presence” at all Ukrainian nuclear power plants “to help prevent a nuclear accident,” but the continued fighting around Zaporizhzhia has made it impossible at that facility.

Police inspect damage from a Russian missile attack in a residential district of Kyiv, Ukraine, March 9, 2023.

Vladyslav Musiienko/Suspilne Ukraine/JSC “UA:PBC”/Global Images Ukraine/Getty

In the shell-shocked central city of Dnipro, residents’ fears were more immediate after the overnight missile attacks, and some struggled to comprehend why their city was a target for Vladimir Putin’s assault.

“It doesn’t make sense to me how this can be in the 21st century,” said 60-year-old Igor Yezhov, calling the Russian attackers “wild people — just savages.”

All winter the Kremlin has ruthlessly targeted Ukraine’s power and civilian infrastructure with missiles and drones, but it is the eastern mining city of Bakhmut where the ground war remains the most intense.

The head of the Kremlin-linked Russian mercenary group Wagner claims his fighters have captured key urban areas after seven grinding months of street battles in the city.

Russian mercenaries on the “lies” that lured them to Ukraine

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Moscow has thrown wave after wave of fighters, many of them from the Wagner Group, at the battle for Bakhmut, desperate to claim the entire town in what would be its first major territorial gain in over half a year.

In the battered town of Chasiv Yar, just a few miles west of Bakhmut in Ukrainian-held territory, CBS News met Baida, a soldier who had just returned from the front line. At 55, he said he’d never expected to become a soldier before Russia invaded his country, and he admitted the battle was “really hard.”

He spoke to us in front of the armored vehicle he’d driven in the battle, which he credited with saving the lives of himself and his fellow soldiers on multiple occasions.

“This vehicle is very strong, it survives anti-tank mines, keeps the personnel safe, survives rocket-propelled grenades and anti-tank guided missiles,” he said. “I can show the examples of when we came under shelling in it and it stood strong, sustaining 120[mm] mortars. It maneuvers well, performs well in mud and forests, it’s stable.”

Ukrainian soldier “Baida” shows the armored personnel carrier that he credits with saving his life on multiple occasions as he took part in the battle for Bakhmut, as he speaks with CBS News in the nearby town of Chasiv Yar, Ukraine, in early March 2023.

Agnes Reau/CBS News

But Baida, a callsign, knows nothing can protect him or his fellow soldiers every time.

“Yesterday one of our men died, a driver of the same vehicle,” he said. “That’s how it is. We are hoping for everything to be okay… There are losses, but we can’t win without that.”

Those losses were felt acutely at the funeral of 29-year-old medic Yama Rikhlitska, who was killed as she treated injured soldiers in a field hospital just outside Bakhmut.

“Oh Yana,” her mother cried in anguish as she said her final goodbye, “my baby, my little one.”

As Ukrainians continue to pay the ultimate price in this war now in its second year, there’s a grim acceptance that the brutal conflict is showing no signs of easing, let alone ending.

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Imtiaz Tyab

Imtiaz Tyab is a CBS News correspondent based in London.

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March 9, 2023
North Korea test launched intercontinental ballistic missile, state media says

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North Korea on Saturday fired an intercontinental ballistic missile from its capital into the sea off Japan, state media KCNA reported Sunday. The country threatened on Friday to take strong measures against South Korea and the U.S. over their joint military exercises.

KCNA reported that “the drill was suddenly organized without previous notice,” and that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had personally signed off on the test.

According to the South Korean and Japanese militaries, the missile was fired on a high angle, apparently to avoid reaching the neighbors’ territories, and traveled about 560 miles at a maximum altitude of 3,500 miles during an hourlong flight.

The details were similar to North Korea’s Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile test flight in November, which experts said demonstrated potential to reach the U.S. mainland if fired on a normal trajectory. Saturday’s test was of a Hwasong-15, according to KCNA.

A woman walks past a television showing a news broadcast with file footage of a North Korean missile test, at a railway station in Seoul, South Korea, on Feb. 18, 2023.

Anthony Wallace/AFP via Getty Images

Japanese government spokesperson Hirokazu Matsuno said no damage was reported from the missile, which landed within Japan’s exclusive economic zone, about 125 miles west of Oshima island. Oshima lies off the western coast of the northernmost main island of Hokkaido.

North Korea’s Foreign Ministry on Friday threatened with “unprecedently” strong action against its rivals, after South Korea announced a series of military exercises with the United States aimed at sharpening their response to the North’s growing threats.

While the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said the launch did not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel, territory, or its allies, the White House National Security Council said it needlessly raises tensions and risks destabilizing the security situation in the region.

“It only demonstrates that the DPRK continues to prioritize its unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs over the well-being of its people,” it said, calling it a “flagrant violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions.”

The office of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said his national security director, Kim Sung-han, presided over an emergency security meeting that accused the North of escalating regional tensions. It denounced North Korea for accelerating its nuclear arms development despite signs of worsening economic problems and food insecurity, saying such actions would bring only tougher international sanctions.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Tokyo was closely communicating with Washington and Seoul over the launch, which he called “an act of violence that escalates provocation toward the international order.”

The launch was North Korea’s first since Jan. 1, when it test-fired a short-range weapon. It followed a massive military parade in Pyongyang last week, where troops rolled out more than a dozen ICBMs as Kim watched in delight from a balcony.

The unprecedented number of missiles underscored a continuation of expansion of his country’s military capabilities despite limited resources while negotiations with Washington remain stalemated.

Those missiles included a new system experts say is possibly linked to the North’s stated desire to acquire a solid-fuel ICBM. North Korea’s existing ICBMs use liquid propellants that require pre-launch injections and cannot remain fueled for prolonged periods. A solid-fuel alternative would take less time to prepare and is easier to move around on vehicles, providing less opportunity to be spotted.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether Saturday’s launch involved a solid-fuel system.

North Korea is coming off a record year in weapons demonstrations with more than 70 ballistic missiles fired, including those with potential to reach the U.S. mainland. The North also conducted a slew of launches it described as simulated nuclear attacks against South Korean and U.S. targets in response to the allies’ resumption of large-scale joint military exercise that had been downsized for years.

North Korea’s missile tests have been punctuated by threats of preemptive nuclear attacks against South Korea or the U.S. over what it perceives as a broad range of scenarios that put its leadership under threat.

Kim doubled down on his nuclear push entering 2023, calling for an “exponential increase” in the country’s nuclear warheads, mass production of battlefield tactical nuclear weapons targeting “enemy” South Korea and the development of more advanced ICBMs.

South Korea’s Defense Ministry officials told lawmakers earlier that Seoul and Washington will hold an annual computer-simulated combined training in mid-March. The 11-day training will reflect North Korea’s nuclear threats, as well as unspecified lessons from the Russia-Ukraine war, according to Heo Tae-keun, South Korea’s deputy minister of national defense policy. Heo said the countries will also conduct joint field exercises in mid-March that would be bigger than those held in the past few years.

South Korea and the U.S. will also hold a one-day tabletop exercise next week at the Pentagon to sharpen a response to a potential use of nuclear weapons by North Korea.

AFP contributed reporting to this article.

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February 18, 2023
MH17 probe:

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An update on MH17 | 60 Minutes

01:11

The Hague, Netherlands — An international team of investigators said Wednesday it found “strong indications” that Russian President Vladimir Putin approved the supply of heavy anti-aircraft weapons to Ukrainian separatists who shot down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in 2014 with a Russian missile.

However, the Joint Investigation Team said they had insufficient evidence to launch any new prosecutions and suspended their long running probe into the shooting down that killed all 298 people on board the Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

Russia has always denied any involvement in the downing of the flight over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014, and refused to cooperate with the international investigation.

Dutch prosecutors said in their summary of investigation findings that “there are strong indications that the Russian president decided on supplying” a Buk missile system to Ukrainian separatists. A Buk system was used to bring down MH17.

Dutch prosecutor Digna van Boetzelaer said that without Russian cooperation, “the investigation has now reached its limit. All leads have been exhausted.”

The announcement comes nearly three months after a Dutch court convicted two Russians and a Ukrainian rebel for their roles in shooting down the plane. One Russian was acquitted by the court. None of the suspects appeared for the trial and it was unclear if the three who were found guilty of multiple murders will ever serve their sentences.

The long pursuit of justice for victims of MH17 | 60 Minutes Archive

13:37

The convictions and the court’s finding that the surface-to-air Buk missile came from a Russian military base were seen as a clear indication that Moscow had a role in the tragedy. Russia has always denied involvement. The Russian Foreign Ministry accused the court in November of bowing to pressure from Dutch politicians, prosecutors and the news media.

But the November convictions held that Moscow was in overall control in 2014 over the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, the separatist area of eastern Ukraine where the missile was launched. The Buk missile system came from the Russian military’s 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade, based in the city of Kursk.

The Joint Investigation Team is made up of experts from the Netherlands, Australia, Malaysia, Belgium and Ukraine. Most of the victims were Dutch. It had continued to investigate the crew of the missile system that brought down the plane and those who ordered its deployment in Ukraine.

As well as the criminal trial that was held in the Netherlands, the Dutch and Ukrainian governments are suing Russia at the European Court of Human Rights over its alleged role in the downing of MH17.

Malaysia Airlines jet downed in Ukraine

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February 8, 2023
North Korea fires 3 ballistic missiles just days after flying drones into South, Seoul says

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North Korea could hold nuclear test soon

U.S. officials say North Korea could hold nuclear test “at any time”

03:33

North Korea fired three ballistic missiles toward the North’s eastern waters Saturday morning, South Korea’s military said.

It’s the first missile launch by North Korea in eight days, and comes five days after South Korea accused Pyongyang of flying five drones into South Korea’s airspace for the first time since 2017.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that it detected three short-range ballistic missiles launched from North Korea into the East Sea at about 8 a.m. local time Saturday.

North Korea has test-fired more than 70 ballistic and cruise missiles this year. Some experts say North Korea is seeking to modernize its arsenal and increase its leverage in future dealings with the United States.

South Korean warplanes and helicopters failed to bring down any of the North Korean drones spotted south of the border before they flew back home or vanished from South Korean radar. One of them traveled as far as northern Seoul. That caused security jitters among many people in the South, for which the military offered a rare public apology Tuesday.

The launch came as North Korea is under a major ruling party meeting in Pyongyang to review past policies and new policy goals for 2023. Some observers say North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would reaffirm his vow to expand his nuclear arsenal and introduce sophisticated weapons in the name of dealing with what he calls U.S. hostility.

There have been concerns that North Korea might conduct its first nuclear test in five years. In late October, U.S. and South Korean officials told CBS News that Pyongyang is preparing to test an atomic weapon soon, in what would be its first nuclear test since 2017.

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December 30, 2022
North Korea fires two ballistic missiles days after joint U.S.-South Korea drills, South says

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Seoul, South Korea — North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles toward its eastern waters on Friday, South Korea’s military said, its latest weapons demonstration that came days after U.S. and South Korean warplanes conducted joint drills that North Korea views as an invasion rehearsal.

South Korea’s military detected the missile launches from North Korea’s capital region at around 4:32 p.m., South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. It said the South Korean military has strengthened its surveillance posture and is maintaining readiness with close coordination with the United States.

The U.S. flew nuclear-capable bombers and advanced stealth jets near the Korean Peninsula for joint training with South Korean warplanes on Tuesday. South Korea’s Defense Ministry said the drills were part of a bilateral agreement on boosting a U.S. commitment to defend its Asian ally with all available military capabilities, including nuclear.

A B-52 fighter jet was part of joint U.S. drills with South Korea on Tuesday, December 20th, 2022.

Joint Chiefs of Staff

North Korea typically calls such military exercises by the U.S. and South Korea an invasion rehearsal, though the allies have steadfastly said they have no intention of attacking the North.

The South Korea-U.S. training came after North Korea recently claimed to have conducted key tests needed to develop its first military spy satellite and a new strategic weapon, a likely reference to a more mobile intercontinental ballistic missile.

North Korea said it launched a pair of rockets Sunday to test cameras and other systems for the development of its first military reconnaissance satellite. Its state media published low-resolution photos of South Korean cities as viewed from space.

Some civilian experts in South Korea and elsewhere said the photos were too crude for surveillance purposes and that the launches were likely a cover for tests of North Korea’s missile technology. South Korea’s military said North Korea fired two medium-range ballistic missiles.

Such assessments have infuriated North Korea, with the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un issuing crude insults of unidentified South Korean experts. Kim Yo Jong said there was no reason to use an expensive, high-resolution camera for a single-shot test and that North Korea’s space agency used two old missiles as space launch vehicles.

North Korea has test-launched a barrage of missiles this year, including nuclear-capable ballistic weapons designed to strike the U.S. mainland and its allies South Korea and Japan. North Korea said it was compelled to carry out such tests to respond to previous military drills between the United States and South Korea.

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December 23, 2022
North Korea test fires 2 ballistic missiles, Seoul says

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North Korea fired a pair of ballistic missiles on Sunday toward its eastern waters, its first weapons test in a month and coming two days after it claimed to have performed a key test needed to build a more mobile, powerful intercontinental ballistic missile designed to strike the U.S. mainland.

South Korea’s military detected the launch of two North Korean ballistic missiles from its northwest Tongchangri area. The missiles flew across the country toward its eastern waters, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

It said the missiles were fired about 50 minutes apart but gave no further details, like precisely what type of weapons North Korea fired and how far they flew. The Joint Chiefs of Staff said South Korea’s military has bolstered its surveillance posture and maintains a readiness in close coordination with the United States.

Japanese officials also said they spotted the two missile launches from North Korea. Its coast guard said the missiles fired from North Korea fell in the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. Japanese coast guard officials said both missiles landed outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone.

A TV screen shows a North Korea missile launch during a news program at the Yongsan Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, on Nov. 19, 2022.

KIM Jae-Hwan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

The Tongchangri area is home to North Korea’s Sohae Satellite Launching Ground, where the country in past years launched satellite-carrying long-range rockets in what the U.N. called a disguised test of ICBM technology.

On Thursday, in the Sohae facility, North Korea also performed what it called the test of a “high-thrust solid-fuel motor” for a new strategic weapon, a development that experts say could allow it to possess a more mobile, harder-to-detect arsenal of intercontinental ballistic missiles that can reach the U.S. mainland.

It wasn’t immediately known if Sunday’s launches occurred from the Sohae facility.

Sunday’s launch is the North’s first public weapons test since the country last month launched its developmental, longest-range liquid-fueled Hwasong-17 ICBM capable of reaching the entire U.S. homeland. In recent months, North Korea has test-launched a barrage of missiles at a record pace, despite pandemic-related economic hardships and U.S.-led pressures to curb its nuclear program.

North Korea has defended its weapons testing as self-defense measures to cope with the expanded U.S.-South Korea military drills that it views as an invasion rehearsal. But some experts say North Korea likely used its rivals’ military training as an excuse to enlarge its weapons arsenal and increase its leverage in future negotiations with the U.S. Last month, President Biden and the leaders of Japan and South Korea vowed a unified, coordinated response to North Korea’s missile and nuclear programs.

The weapon North Korea said it could build with the recently tested motor likely refers to a solid-fueled ICBM, which is among a list of high-tech weapons systems that leader Kim Jong Un vowed to procure during a major ruling Workers’ Party conference early last year. Other weapons systems Kim promised to manufacture include a multi-warhead missile, underwater-launched nuclear missiles and spy satellites.

The fuel in solid-propellant rockets is already loaded inside, which helps to shorten launch preparation times, increase the weapon’s mobility and make it harder for outsiders to detect what’s happening before liftoff. North Korea already has a growing arsenal of short-range, solid-fueled ballistic missiles targeting key locations in South Korea, including U.S. military bases there.

There have also been concerns that North Korea might conduct its first nuclear test in five years. In late October, U.S. and South Korean officials told CBS News that Pyongyang is preparing to test an atomic weapon soon, in what would be its first nuclear test since 2017.

The exact status of North Korea’s nuclear attack capability remains in secrecy, as all its intercontinental ballistic missile tests in recent years have been carried out at a steep angle to avoid neighboring countries.

Some experts speculate North Korea already has functioning nuclear-tipped missiles that can hit the entire U.S., given the number of years it has spent on its nuclear program. But others say country is still years away from acquiring such weapons, saying it has yet to publicly prove it has a technology to protect warheads from the harsh conditions of atmospheric reentry.

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December 17, 2022
North Korea launches ICBM that could reach entire U.S. mainland, Japan says

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North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile that landed near Japanese waters Friday in its second major weapons test this month, South Korea and Japan said. The missile had the potential to reach all of the U.S. mainland, Japan’s defense minister said.

The United States quickly condemned the launch and vowed to take “all necessary measures” to guarantee the safety of its own mainland and of allies South Korea and Japan.

At the regional APEC summit in Bangkok, Thailand, Vice President Kamala Harris called Friday’s launch a “brazen violation of multiple U.N. Security resolutions” that “destabilizes security in the region, and unnecessarily raises tensions. We strongly condemn these actions and we again call for North Korea to stop further unlawful, destabilizing acts. On behalf of the United States, I reaffirm our ironclad commitment to our Indo-Pacific alliances.

“Together, the countries represented here will continue to urge North Korea to commit to serious and sustained diplomacy,” she continued.

Later, the U.S, South Korea, Canada, New Zealand, Japan, and Australia all condemned the launch in the strongest terms at an emergency meeting on the APEC sidelines, Tokyo said, the Reuters news agency reported.

Russian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Sergei Ryabkov, on the other hand, was quoted by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency as saying that that while Moscow prefers a diplomatic approach toward the Korean peninsula, “it’s been particularly evident recently that the United States and its allies in the region prefer a different path. It’s as if Pyongyang’s patience is being tested.” Agence France-Presse reported on Moscow’s reaction.

In response to the ICBM test, The U.S. and South Korea held joint air force drills Friday with F-35A fighters, South Korea’s defense ministry said, according to Reuters.

Pyongyang’s ongoing torrid run of weapons tests seeks to advance its nuclear arsenal and win greater concessions in eventual diplomacy, and the launches come as China and Russia have opposed U.S. moves to toughen sanctions aimed at curbing the North’s nuclear program.

Vice President Kamala Harris holds a meeting about North Korea’s missile launch on Nov. 18, 2022 with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo of South Korea, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Bangkok, Thailand.

Haiyun Jiang / Pool via Reuters

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected the ICBM launch from North Korea’s capital region around 10:15 a.m. and the weapon flew toward the North’s eastern coast across the country. Japan said the ICBM appeared to have flown on a high trajectory and landed west of Hokkaido.

According to South Korean and Japanese estimates, the North Korean missile flew about 3,600-3,790 miles at a maximum altitude of 620 miles.

Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada told reporters the altitude suggests the missile was launched on a high angle. He said depending on the weight of a warhead placed on the missile, the weapon has a range exceeding 9,320 miles, “in which case it could cover the entire mainland United States.”

U.S. National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said the launch “needlessly raises tensions and risks destabilizing” regional security while showing the North’s prioritizing of unlawful weapons programs over the well-being of its people. She said President Biden was briefed over the launch.

“Pyongyang must immediately cease its destabilizing actions and instead choose diplomatic engagement,” Watson said.

A TV screen shows a file image of a North Korean missile launch during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, on Nov. 18, 2022. South Korea said the missile North Korea launched Friday is likely an intercontinental ballistic missile.

Ahn Young-joon / AP

Hamada, the Japanese defense minister, called the launch “a reckless act that threatens Japan as well as the region and the international community.”

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff called the launch “a grave provocation and serious threat” that undermines international and regional peace and security. It said South Korea maintains readiness to make “an overwhelming response to any North Korean provocation” amid close coordination with the United States.

After being briefed on the launch, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol ordered officials to boost security cooperation with the United States and Japan and to implement unspecified deterrence steps that were previously agreed upon with the United States. Yoon also ordered officials to push for strong international condemnations and sanctions on North Korea, according to his office.

North Korea also launched an ICBM on Nov. 3, but experts said that weapon failed to fly its intended route and fell into the ocean after a stage separation. That test was believed to have involved a developmental ICBM called Hwasong-17.

North Korea has two other types of ICBMs – Hwasong-14 and Hwasong-15 – and their test-launches in 2017 proved they could potentially reach parts of the U.S. homeland.

The Hwasong-17 has a longer potential range than the others, and its huge size suggests it’s designed to carry multiple nuclear warheads to defeat missile defense systems. Some experts say the Nov. 3 test showed some technological progress in the development of the Hwasong-17, given that in its earlier test in March, the missile exploded soon after liftoff.

It wasn’t immediately known if North Korea launched a Hwasong-17 missile again on Friday or something else.

In recent months, North Korea has performed dozens of shorter-range missile tests that it called simulations of nuclear attacks on South Korean and U.S. targets. But it had halted weapons launches for about a week before it fired a short-range ballistic missile on Thursday.

Before Thursday’s launch, the North’s foreign minister, Choe Son Hui, threatened to launch “fiercer” military responses to the U.S. bolstering its security commitment to its allies South Korea and Japan.

Choe was referring to Mr. Biden’s recent trilateral summit with Yoon and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on the sidelines of a regional gathering in Cambodia. In their joint statement, the three leaders strongly condemned North Korea’s recent missile tests and agreed to work together to strengthen deterrence. Mr. Biden reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to defend South Korea and Japan with a full range of capabilities, including its nuclear arms.

Choe didn’t say what steps North Korea could take but said that “the U.S. will be well aware that it is gambling, for which it will certainly regret.”

Pyongyang sees the U.S. military presence in the region as proof of its hostility toward North Korea. It has said its recent series of weapons launches were its response to what it called provocative military drills between the United States and South Korea.

North Korea has been under multiple rounds of United Nations sanctions over its previous nuclear and missile tests. But no fresh sanctions have been applied this year though it has conducted dozens of ballistic missile launches, which are banned by U.N. Security Council resolutions.

That’s possibly because China and Russia, two of the U.N. council’s veto-wielding members, oppose new U.N. sanctions. Washington is locked in a strategic competition with Beijing and in a confrontation with Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.

There have been concerns that North Korea might conduct its first nuclear test in five years as its next major step toward bolstering its military capability against the United States and its allies.

In late October, U.S. and South Korean officials confirmed to CBS News that Pyongyang is preparing to test an atomic weapon soon, in what would be its first nuclear test since 2017.

The North has argued a U.S. military presence in the region as proof of its hostility toward the country. It has said its recent series of weapons launches were response to what it called provocative military drills between the United States and South Korea.

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November 18, 2022
North Korea test launches suspected ICBM, Seoul says

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North Korea fired a suspected intercontinental ballistic missile that landed near Japanese territorial waters Friday, its neighbors said, the second such major weapons test this month that shows its determination to perfect weapons systems targeting the U.S. mainland.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said that the missile was launched at 10:15 a.m. local time Friday from Pyongyang. It traveled a distance of about 620 miles (1,000 kilometers), at an altitude of 3,790 miles (6,100 kilometers), and reached a speed of Mach 22, before landing in the East Sea.

The Japanese Defense Ministry also initially identified the weapon as an ICBM-class ballistic missile. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, visiting Bangkok to attend a regional summit, told reporters it was believed to have landed at sea inside Japan’s exclusive economic zone west of Hokkaido, Japan’s main northern island.

A “seek cover order” for the Misawa Air Base in northern Japan was issued as a “precautionary measure” by the commander of the 35th Fighter Wing, the U.S. base said in a statement posted to Facebook. The order was lifted at 10:55 a.m. local time Friday.

“At this time, there are no additional indications or warnings of an immediate threat to Misawa Air Base,” the statement read.

A TV screen shows a file image of a North Korea missile launch during a news program being watched at the Yongsan Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, on Nov. 17, 2022. North Korea fired one short-range ballistic missile into the East Sea that day.

Kim Jae-Hwan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

If confirmed, it would be North Korea’s first ICBM launch in about two weeks. Outside experts said that an ICBM launched by North Korea on Nov. 3 failed to fly its intended flight.

The Nov. 3 test was believed to have involved a new type of developmental ICBM. North Korea has two other types of ICBM — Hwasong-14 and Hwasong-15 and their test-launches in 2017 proved they could potentially reach parts of the U.S. homeland.

The Hwasong-17 has a longer potential range than the others and its huge size suggests it’s designed to carry multiple nuclear warheads to defeat missile defense systems. Some experts say the Nov. 3 test showed some technological progress in the development of the Hwasong-17, given that in its earlier test in March, the missile exploded soon after liftoff.

“North Korea has been repeatedly firing missiles this year at an unprecedented frequency and is significantly escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula,” Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamad told reporters.

South Korea’s presidential office said it convened an emergency security meeting to discuss the North Korean launch.

The launch is the latest in a slew of missile tests by North Korea in recent weeks. But the country had halted weapons launches for about a week before it fired a short-range ballistic missile on Thursday.

Before Thursday’s launch, the North’s foreign minister, Choe Son Hui, threatened to launch “fiercer” military responses to the U.S. bolstering its security commitment to its allies South Korea and Japan.

Choe was referring to U.S. President Joe Biden’s recent trilateral summit with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts on the sidelines of a regional gathering in Cambodia. In their joint statement, the three leaders strongly condemned North Korea’s recent missile tests and agreed to work together to strengthen deterrence. Biden reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to defend South Korea and Japan with a full range of capabilities, including its nuclear arms.

Choe didn’t say what steps North Korea could take but said that “the U.S. will be well aware that it is gambling, for which it will certainly regret.”

In late October, U.S. and South Korean officials confirmed to CBS News that North Korea is preparing to test an atomic weapon soon, in what would be its first nuclear test since 2017.

The North has argued a U.S. military presence in the region as proof of its hostility toward the country. It has said its recent series of weapons launches were response to what it called provocative military drills between the United States and South Korea.

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November 17, 2022
“No indication” missile that hit Poland was “attack,” but NATO says Russia at fault as it hammers Ukraine

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NATO’s secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday that there was “no indication” that a missile that landed inside Poland, killing two people on Tuesday, was the result of a deliberate attack by Russia, “and we have no indication that Russia is planning offensive military actions against NATO allies.”

“I think this demonstrates the dangers connected to the ongoing war in Ukraine, but it hasn’t changed our fundamental assessment of the threat against NATO allies,” Stoltenberg told journalists Wednesday after a meeting of NATO’s ambassadors.

Jens Stoltenberg, secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), speaks during a news conference following a meeting of the North Atlantic Council at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, November 16, 2022.

Bloomberg

He said preliminary findings indicated it was likely the missile was Ukrainian air defense, but that “Russia bears responsibility for what happened in Poland yesterday,” because it was a “direct result” of ongoing Russian attacks on Ukraine.

Poland is a member of NATO, so if the missile strike had been a hostile attack by Russia, it could have triggered a response from the allies under the collective defense treaty underpinning the transatlantic military alliance, including the United States.

The origin of the missile that hit Polish territory Tuesday evening has not been confirmed, but as of Wednesday, both the U.S. and Polish leaders had indicated that it was not likely to have been fired by Russia.

Members of the police are seen near the village of Przewodow, Poland, November 16, 2022, after two people were killed the previous afternoon in an explosion at a farm near the country’s border with Ukraine.

Artur Widak/Anadolu Agency/Getty

President Biden joined other Western leaders in calling for a full investigation into the strike, but said he thought it was unlikely the missile was fired from Russia, based on preliminary evidence on its trajectory, and that it could instead have been the result of a Ukrainian interception or attempted interception of a Russian attack.

“We’ll see,” Mr. Biden said Tuesday. “I’m going to make sure we find out exactly what happened.”

When he arrived back at the White House very early Thursday, reporters asked the president about claims from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that the missile wasn’t Ukrainian. Mr. Biden replied, “That’s not the evidence.”

President Joe Biden talks during a meeting of G7 and NATO leaders in Bali, Indonesia, November 16, 2022.

Doug Mills/AP

Poland’s President Andrzej Duda echoed Mr. Biden’s assessment Wednesday morning, saying it was most likely a Ukrainian missile that fell just inside Polish territory, near the Ukraine border, by accident. He said it did not appear to have been an “intentional attack” by Russia.

The Polish president repeated his remarks from the previous day, saying that he and his allies were “acting with calm” because “this is a difficult situation.”

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin agreed, telling reporters at a briefing Wednesday, “We have seen nothing that contradicts President Duda’s preliminary assessment that this explosion was most likely the result of a Ukrainian air defense missile that unfortunately landed in Poland.” Like other western leaders, Austin also said that “Russia bears ultimate responsibility for this incident.”

The Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine called on social media for a “joint study” of the incident. He said Ukraine was expecting to be able to review the evidence for any conclusion that the missile that landed in Poland was Ukrainian air defense, and asked for Ukrainian officials to be given access to the site.

Виступаємо за спільне вивчення інциденту з падінням ракети в Польщі. Готові передати наявні у нас докази російського сліду. Очікуємо від партнерів інформацію, на підставі якої був зроблений висновок про те, що йдеться про ракету української ППО.

— Oleksiy Danilov (@OleksiyDanilov) November 16, 2022

Zelenskyy said later Wednesday that he believed reports he had received from Ukraine’s air force that the missile was not Ukrainian. He also called for Ukraine to be allowed to visit the site in Poland.

“I have no doubt in the air force’s report that it was not our rocket, and it was not our missile strike. I have no reason not to trust them. I went through the war with them,” Zelenskyy said in a press conference. “Do we have the right to be in the investigation team? Of course.”

Polish investigators were hard at work in the missile crater earlier on Wednesday and had established a police cordon a few yards away, BBC News’ Dan Johnson reported from the scene. Residents of the area, which is only about 10 miles from the Ukrainian border, have been nervous that the war could spill over into their community since Russian leader Vladimir Putin launched his invasion on February 24, Johnson noted.

W #Przewodów, gdzie doszło do wybuchu policjanci od początku zdarzenia zabezpieczają teren. Policyjni eksperci m. in. z @CBSPolicji, #CLKP, Biura Kryminalnego @PolskaPolicja wspólnie z innymi służbami szczegółowo wyjaśniają okoliczności zdarzenia i zabezpieczają dowody. pic.twitter.com/ohBP0rT4u7

— Polska Policja 🇵🇱 (@PolskaPolicja) November 16, 2022

Russia fired more than 90 missiles and drones at Ukrainian towns and cities on Tuesday, plunging ten million households into darkness, the Ukrainian government said. It was the largest single missile barrage Russia has launched during the war.

“This is a Russian missile attack on collective security,” Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky said. “This is a very significant escalation. We must act.”

The Kremlin denied responsibility for the missile landing in Poland and called the response of European leaders “hysterical,” while noting the “restrained and much more professional” U.S. reaction.

Police officers stand at a blockade after an explosion in Przewodow, a village in eastern Poland near the border with Ukraine, November 16, 2022.

KACPER PEMPEL / REUTERS

While urging a thorough investigation, Western leaders, including German Chancellor Olaf Sholz and U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, said Russia bore ultimate responsibility for the missile landing in Poland.

“This wouldn’t have happened without the Russian war against Ukraine, without the missiles that are now being fired at Ukrainian infrastructure intensively and on a large scale,” Scholz said.

“This is the cruel and unrelenting reality of Putin’s war,” Sunak said.

CBS News correspondent Chris Livesay contributed to this report.

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Haley Ott

Haley Ott is a digital reporter/producer for CBS News based in London.

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November 16, 2022
North Korea launches another ballistic missile, Seoul says

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North Korea launched yet another ballistic missile toward its eastern waters on Thursday, South Korea’s military said, hours after the North threatened to launch “fiercer” military responses to the U.S. bolstering its security commitment to its allies South Korea and Japan.

The launch of a short-range ballistic missile occurred at 10:48 a.m. local time Thursday into the East Sea, originating from the North Korean city of Wonsan, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff reported. The missile flew a distance of about 240 kilometers, at an altitude of 47 kilometers, and at a speed of Mach 4, South Korea’s military estimated.

U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement that it was “aware” of the launch and was “consulting closely with our allies and partners.” The agency added that it had determined the launch did “not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel or territories, or to our allies.”

Earlier Thursday, North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hue warned that a recent U.S.-South Korea-Japan summit accord on the North would leave tensions on the Korean Peninsula “more unpredictable.”

Choe’s statement was North Korea’s first official response to President Biden’s trilateral summit with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts in Cambodia on Sunday. In their joint statement, the three leaders strongly condemned North Korea’s recent missile tests and agreed to work together to strengthen deterrence, while Biden reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to defend South Korea and Japan with a full range of capabilities, including its nuclear arms.

People watch a television screen showing a news broadcast with file footage of a North Korean missile test, at a railway station in Seoul, South Korea, on Nov. 3, 2022.

JUNG YEON-JE/AFP/Getty Images

Choe said the U.S.-South Korea-Japan summit will bring the situation on the Korean Peninsula to “a more unpredictable phase.”

“The keener the U.S. is on the ‘bolstered offer of extended deterrence’ to its allies and the more they intensify provocative and bluffing military activities on the Korean Peninsula and in the region, the fiercer (North Korea’s) military counteraction will be, in direct proportion to it,” Choe said. “It will pose a more serious, realistic and inevitable threat to the U.S. and its vassal forces.”

Choe didn’t say what steps North Korea could take but said that “The U.S. will be well aware that it is gambling for which it will certainly regret.”

North Korea has steadfastly maintained its recent weapons testing activities are legitimate military counteractions to what it calls military drills between U.S. and South Korean forces, which it views as a practice to launch attacks on the North.

In late October, U.S. and South Korean officials confirmed to CBS News that North Korea is preparing to test an atomic weapon soon, in what would be its first nuclear test since 2017.

And earlier this month, North Korea fired dozens of missiles and flew warplanes toward the sea — triggering evacuation alerts in some South Korean and Japanese areas — in protest of massive U.S.-South Korean air force drills that the North views as an invasion rehearsal.

On Nov. 7, North Korea released a statement saying that its flurry of missile tests were practice to “mercilessly” strike key South Korean and U.S. targets, such as air bases and operation command systems.

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November 16, 2022
North Korea keeps up missile barrage with intercontinental ballistic missile

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North Korea added to its barrage of recent weapons tests on Thursday, firing at least three missiles, including an intercontinental ballistic missile that forced the Japanese government to issue evacuation alerts and temporarily halt trains.

The launches are the latest in a series of North Korean weapons tests in recent months that have raised tensions in the region. They came a day after Pyongyang fired more than 20 missiles, the most it has fired in a single day ever.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected the North firing an ICBM from an area near its capital Pyongyang around 7:40 a.m. and then firing two short-range missiles an hour later from the nearby city of Kacheon that flew toward its eastern waters.

The longer-range missile was fired on a high angle, apparently to avoid reaching the territory of neighbors, reaching a maximum altitude of 1,920 kilometers (1,193 miles) and traveling around 760 kilometers (472 miles), according to South Korea’s military.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether the launch was successful.

People watch a television screen showing a news broadcast with file footage of a North Korean missile test, at a railway station in Seoul, South Korea on Nov. 2, 2022.

JUNG YEON-JE/AFP/Getty Images

Japan’s Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada announced similar flight details but said that his military lost track of the weapon after it “disappeared” in skies above waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.

On Oct. 4, North Korea fired a ballistic missile over Japan for the first time in five years.

Choi Yong Soo, a South Korean Navy captain who handles public affairs for Seoul’s Defense Ministry, didn’t answer directly when asked whether the military believes the launch might have failed with the missile exploding in midair, saying that the test was still being analyzed.

Citing anonymous military sources, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported that the missile possibly failed to maintain normal flight following a stage separation.

The Japanese government initially feared that the ICBM would fly over its northern territory, but later revised its assessment, saying there were no overflies.

The office of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida broadcast alerts through television, radio, mobile phones and public loudspeakers to residents in the northern prefectures of Miyagi, Yamagata and Niigata, instructing them to go inside firm buildings or underground.

There have been no reports of damage or injuries from areas where the alerts were issued. Bullet train services in those regions were temporarily suspended following the missile alert before resuming shortly. Kishida condemned the North’s launches and said officials were analyzing the details of the weapons.

The office of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said his national security director Kim Sung-han discussed the launches during an emergency security meeting where members talked about plans to strength the country’s defense in conjunction with its alliance with the United States.

The office said South Korea will maintain its combined military exercises with the United States in response to North Korea’s intensifying testing activity, which it said would only deepen the North’s international isolation and unleash further economic shock on its people.

One of the more than 20 missiles North Korea shot on Wednesday flew in the direction of a populated South Korean island and landed near the rivals’ tense sea border, triggering air raid sirens and forcing residents on Ulleung island to evacuate. South Korea quickly responded by launching its own missiles in the same border area.

Those launches came hours after North Korea threatened to use nuclear weapons to get the U.S. and South Korea to “pay the most horrible price in history” in protest of ongoing South Korean-U.S. military drills that it views as a rehearsal for a potential invasion.

In a statement Wednesday night, a U.S. State Department spokesperson condemned the launch, calling it a “clear violation of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions.”

“This action underscores the need for all countries to fully implement DPRK related UN Security Council resolutions, which are intended to prohibit the DPRK from acquiring the technologies and materials needed to carry out these destabilizing tests,” the statement read.

In September, North Korea’s parliament unveiled a new “first use” doctrine in which Pyongyang could launch a preemptive nuclear strike. That drew concern among America’s regional allies of Japan and South Korea. The two Koreas are technically still in a state of war, and Seoul relies on the U.S. for protection.

The last attempt at diplomacy under the Trump administration collapsed after a high profile summit between President Trump and Kim in Hanoi, Vietnam, in February 2019. While the two leaders celebrated their personal connections, no deal was brokered and North Korea’s nuclear development continued. The Biden administration’s outreach has also fallen short.

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November 2, 2022
Ukraine

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President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday people were killed and injured in multiple missile strikes on cities across Ukraine, including the first bombardment of the capital in months. The strikes could signal a major escalation in the eight-month-old war.

“Air raid sirens are not subsiding around Ukraine… Unfortunately there are dead and wounded. Please do not leave the shelters,” Zelensky said on social media, accusing Russia of wanting to “wipe us from the face of the Earth.”

The blasts came a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed Kyiv for massive a explosion on a 12-mile bridge connecting Crimea with Russia. Crimea is a large Ukrainian peninsula that Russia occupied and then unilaterally annexed eight years ago during a previous invasion. The annexation of that territory, like Putin’s recent land grab of four Ukrainian regions that he declared Russian soil last week, have been condemned as illegitimate and illegal by Ukraine, the United Nations, the U.S. and other Ukrainian partners.

Rescue workers survey the scene of a Russian attack on Kyiv, Ukraine on Oct. 10, 2022. Several explosions rocked the city early in the morning following months of relative calm in the Ukrainian capital.

Adam Schreck / AP

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the president’s office, said on social media Monday that, “Ukraine is under missile attack. There is information about strikes in many cities of our country.”

General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, said on Twitter that Russia had launched 75 missiles at Ukraine but that “41 of them were neutralized by our air defence.”

Zelenskyy later emerged onto a street in Kyiv to record a selfie video with a message to his people and the world, denouncing Russia for the barrage of missiles which he said had targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, and its civilians.

“They have specifically chosen such a time and such targets to cause as much damage as possible,” the president said. “But we Ukrainians, we help each other, believe in ourselves, rebuild everything. Now the shortages of electricity may occur, but not the shortage of our defiance and our confidence in our victory.”

In Kyiv, reporters for the French news agency AFP heard at least five explosions in two salvos Monday morning, and a BBC News reporter ducked for cover as a massive explosion struck while he was on the air. Some of the missiles hit the center of the capital. Previous attacks largely targeted Kyiv’s outskirts.

Videos posted on social media showed black smoke rising above several areas of the city. Russia’s last strike on the capital was on June 26.

Russia launches deadly strikes in Ukraine after battlefield setbacks

02:40

Other major cities hit by explosions Monday included Lviv, in Ukraine’s far west, which has been a refuge for many people fleeing the fighting in the east.

The foreign minister of Moldova, a small nation that sits along Ukraine’s southwest border, said three cruise missiles “from Russian ships in the Black Sea” had flown through Moldova’s airspace as they headed for Ukraine on Monday morning.

Foreign Minister Nicu Popescu added in his Twitter message that he had “instructed that Russia’s ambassador be summoned to provide an explanation.”

CIA World Factbook

Witnesses also reported a loud explosion Monday morning in Russia’s Belgorod region, which sits right along Ukraine’s eastern border. One witness told Reuters there was a loud bang and windows shook. The cause of the blast wasn’t clear.

The explosions came a day after Putin said Ukraine was behind an explosion on the Kerch bridge, linking Crimea with Russia, that left three people dead.

“The authors, perpetrators and sponsors are the Ukrainian secret services,” Putin said of Saturday’s bridge bombing, which he described as a “terrorist act.”

Crimea bridge, key supply route in Russia’s war in Ukraine, destroyed

02:38

Putin spoke during a meeting with the head of the investigation committee he has set up to look into the bombing, Russian news agencies reported. The Russian leader was gearing up for a meeting with his Security Council later Monday, the Kremlin told local news agencies.

“Tomorrow the president has a planned meeting with the permanent members of the Security Council,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

The blast that hit the bridge sparked celebrations among Ukrainians and others on social media. But Zelenskyy, in his nightly address on Saturday, didn’t directly mention the incident, and officials in Kyiv have made no direct claim of responsibility.

On Saturday, Russia said some road and rail traffic had resumed over the strategic link, a powerful symbol of the Kremlin’s 2014 annexation of Crimea. The bridge has served as a vital supply link between Russia and the annexed Crimean peninsula during its current invasion of south and eastern Ukraine.

Some military analysts argue the explosion could have a major impact if Moscow sees the need to shift already hard-pressed troops to Crimea from other regions — or if it prompts a rush by residents to leave.

Mick Ryan, a retired Australian senior officer now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said even if Kyiv wasn’t behind the blast, it constituted “a massive influence operation win for Ukraine.

“It is a demonstration to Russians, and the rest of the world, that Russia’s military cannot protect any of the provinces it recently annexed,” he said on Twitter.

Rescuers gather near a residential building damaged after a strike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, October 9, 2022.

MARYNA MOISEYENKO/AFP/Getty

Zelenskyy, meanwhile, denounced a Russian missile strike on Sunday that killed at least 17 people in Zaporizhzhia, the latest deadly bombardment of the southern Ukrainian city. The attack also wounded 89 people, according to a statement from the president’s office.

Zelenskyy described the “merciless strikes on peaceful people” and residential buildings as “absolute evil” perpetrated by “savages and terrorists.”

Regional official Oleksandr Starukh posted pictures of heavily damaged apartment blocks on social media and said a rescue operation had been launched to find victims under the rubble.

Russian officials, meanwhile, denounced on Sunday what they said was a surge in Ukrainian fire into its territory that had hit homes, administrative buildings and a monastery.

Russia’s FBS, which is responsible for border security, said on Sunday: “Since the start of October, the number of attacks from Ukrainian armed formations on Russia’s border territory has considerably increased.”

More than 100 artillery attacks, concentrated on the western border regions of Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk, had hit housing and administrative buildings, said the statement. The attacks had killed one person and wounded five others.

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October 10, 2022
North Korea launches 2 more ballistic missiles; one lands in Sea of Japan

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North Korea launched two more ballistic missiles Thursday morning, one of which landed in the Sea of Japan, U.S. officials confirmed to CBS News. The second missile landed in North Korea, the officials said.

It’s unclear if Thursday’s launches were in direct response to the announcement Wednesday that the U.S. aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan would return to waters east of South Korea. The carrier was part of drills last week with South Korea and Japan.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that the two missiles were launched from Pyongyang about 22 minutes apart in the direction of the Sea of Japan.

“North Korea’s successive launch of ballistic missiles is a serious provocation that harms the peace and stability of not only the Korean Peninsula but also the international community, and it is a clear violation of the ‘UN Security Council resolution,’” the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida also confirmed the North Korean missile launches, saying the weapons firings are “absolutely intolerable.”

The launches were the North’s sixth round of weapons firings in less than two weeks, which has prompted condemnation from the U.S. and other countries. It also came just two days after North Korea fired an intermediate-range missile over Japan for the first time in five years. Foreign experts said the missile fired Tuesday involved a weapon capable of reaching the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam and beyond.

The country has fired nearly 40 ballistic missiles over about 20 different launch events this year, exploiting Russia’s war on Ukraine and the resulting deep divide in the U.N. Security Council to accelerate its arms development without risking further sanctions.

Debate over how to handle Tuesday’s missile launch over Japanese territory split an already deeply fractured U.N. Security Council on Wednesday, with Russia and China insisting that U.S.-led military exercises in the region had provoked North Korea into acting.

Wednesday’s session ended with no agreement on next steps, despite warnings from the U.S. and its allies that the council’s inability to reach consensus on North Korea’s record number of missile launches this year was emboldening North Korea and undermining the authority of the United Nations’ most powerful body.

This picture shows a Japan Air Self-Defense Force ground-based missile interceptor Patriot system deployed next to the Ministry of Defense in Tokyo on Oct. 5, 2022.

KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP/Getty Images

The North’s flurry of weapons tests in recent days came after the U.S. staged military drills with South Korea and Japan in the waters off the Korean Peninsula’s east coast.

The drills on Tuesday were conducted to show a joint ability to deter a North Korean attack on the South. The allies conducted training bombing runs by F-15 strike jets using precision munitions and launched two missiles each that are part of the Army Tactical Missile System.

However, one of South Korea’s ballistic missiles malfunctioned and fell on land during the drill, with sound of the blast and subsequent fire triggering panic among residents in the coastal city of Gangneung.

North Korea views such drills as an invasion rehearsal. The country launched its own missile hours before the drills in its most provocative demonstration since 2017. The nuclear-capable ballistic missile that was launched has a range capable of striking Guam, which is home to one of the largest military facilities maintained by the U.S. in Asia. North Korea in 2017 also tested missiles capable of hitting the continental United States.

After Tuesday’s launch, the United States, Britain, France, Albania, Norway and Ireland called for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council.

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October 5, 2022
North Korea fires ballistic missile over Japan for first time in 5 years, drawing quick response from U.S., South Korea

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Seoul, South Korea — North Korea on Tuesday fired a ballistic missile over Japan for the first time in five years, forcing Japan to issue evacuation notices and suspend trains during the flight of the nuclear-capable weapon that could reach the U.S. territory of Guam, and possibly beyond. The launch was the most provocative weapons demonstration by North Korea this year.

CBS News senior foreign correspondent Elizabeth Palmer reported from Tokyo that residents of coastal communities in northern Japan were woken up Tuesday by sirens and warnings to prepare to evacuate their homes.

A man watches a TV news report on North Korea firing a ballistic missile over Japan, at a railway station in Seoul, South Korea, on Oct. 4, 2022.

KIM HONG-JI / REUTERS

North Korea fired the missile from near its border with China. It took took 22 minutes to fly 2,800 miles on a path directly over northern Japan before crashing into the sea. Analysts believe the missile was the Hwasong-12, which the Kim regime rolled out in a military parade in January.

The test of the apparent Hwasong-12 appeared to be North Korea’s longest-range missile launch to date, and would put major U.S. military bases in the region easily within range.

This picture taken on May 14, 2017 and released from North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on May 15 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspecting a ground-to-ground medium long-range strategic ballistic rocket Hwasong-12 at an undisclosed location.

STR/AFP/Getty

The U.S. and South Korea conducted a “combined attack squadron flight and precision bombing drill in response to North Korea’s intermediate-range ballistic missile provocation today,” the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Defense said in a statement later Tuesday.

The drill saw four South Korean F-15s and four U.S. F-16 fighter jets fire two shots at a set target, which the South Korean military said had demonstrated the will by both countries “to respond resolutely to any provocation from North Korea, the ability to precisely strike the origin of the provocation with the overwhelming power of the alliance, and a readiness posture for retaliation.”

A South Korean F-15K takes off to participate in a combined attack squadron flight and precision bombing training drill with U.S. forces on October 4, 2022, in response to a North Korean test firing of a suspected Hwasong-12 intermediate-range missile earlier in the day.

Hanout/South Korean Ministry of Defense

As Palmer reported, Tuesday’s was the latest and most threatening test in what has already been a bumper year of 23 separate missile launches by North Korea. The last time the North fired a rocket over Japan, however, was 2017, when North-South relations hit a low point just before then-President Trump’s attempts to negotiate directly with Kim.

There was no immediate comment from the Kim regime about Tuesday’s test, but Palmer said the North Korean dictator’s message was clear: He’s angered and threatened by the growing military alliance in the Pacific between the U.S. and its key partners South Korea and Japan.

Palmer noted that there have been no recent signs that negotiations — even indirect talks — are under consideration to defuse the tension.

Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida condemned the “reckless act” and quickly convened his country’s National Security Council. The United States also strongly condemned North Korea’s “dangerous and reckless decision” to launch what it described as a “long-range ballistic missile” over Japan.

U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken held separate calls with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts and, the State Department said, all three “strongly condemned the launch and its blatant disregard of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions and its deeply destabilizing implications for the region.”

U.S. aircraft carrier arrives in South Korea for first time since 2018

05:42

“The United States will continue its efforts to limit (North Korea’s) ability to advance its prohibited ballistic missile and weapons of mass destruction programs, including with allies and U.N. partners,” National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement.

Japanese authorities alerted residents in northeastern regions to evacuate to shelters, in the first “J-alert” since 2017 when North Korea fired an intermediate-range Hwasong-12 missile twice over Japan in a span of weeks during its previous torrid run of weapons tests.

Trains were suspended in the Hokkaido and Aomori regions until the government issued a subsequent notice that the North Korean missile appeared to have landed in the Pacific. In Sapporo city, the prefectural capital of Japan’s northernmost main island of Hokkaido, subways were also temporarily suspended, with stations packed with morning commuters.

According to South Korean and Japanese estimates, the missile traveled about 2,800-2,860 miles at a maximum altitude of 600-620 miles. Hamada said it landed in the Pacific, about 1,990 miles off the northern Japanese coast and that there were no reports of damage to Japanese aircraft or ships.

South Korea’s Defense Ministry said the missile flew farther than any other weapon fired by North Korea. Before Tuesday’s launch, the 2,300 mile-long flight of Hwasong-12 in 2017 was North Korea’s longest. It has previously tested intercontinental ballistic missiles at steep angles so they flew shorter distances.

The missile’s flight distance shows it has enough range to hit the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam, home to U.S. military bases that sent advanced warplanes to the Korean Peninsula in shows of force in past tensions with North Korea. In 2017, North Korea threatened to make “an enveloping fire” near Guam with Hwasong-12 missiles amid rising animosities with the then-Trump administration.

North Korea last test-fired a Hwasong-12 missile in January. At the time, the North said the launch was meant to verify the overall accuracy of the weapon, which it said was launched on a lofted angle to prevent it from flying over other countries.

CBS News’ Jen Kwon in Seoul contributed to this report.

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October 4, 2022