North Korea said Wednesday that it fired a brand-new intercontinental ballistic missile into the waters off Japan, ending a more than two-month hiatus by Pyongyang and threatening to ramp up tensions with the U.S. and in the region. In a nationally televised broadcast, North Korea’s state television said that it had successfully fired a more advanced ICBM, which it dubbed the Hwasong-15 and which it said
was capable of reaching any point on the U.S. mainland, in a launch personally ordered by leader Kim Jong Un. Mr. Kim was quoted by state media as saying that, with the success of the new missile, “We have finally realized the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force.” Independent experts said that the launch sent a North Korean missile higher than ever before, demonstrating a trajectory that could put Washington, D.C., in range. READ MORE