UK condemns North Korea’s latest ballistic missile launch

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) - Britain on Tuesday condemned North Korea’s most recent ballistic missile launch, calling it a "clear breach" of multiple UN Security Council resolutions.

"This repeated cycle of testing is deeply damaging for regional stability and further threatens peace and security in the Korean Peninsula," a UK Foreign Office spokesperson said in a statement.

Britain strongly urges North Korea “to refrain from illegal launches, swiftly return to dialogue and abandon its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner," it added.

South Korea and Japan said Sunday that North Korea launched an intermediate-range class ballistic missile, the first such missile fire this year, saying it flew around 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) before landing in waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.

Later, North Korea said it had successfully tested a solid-fuel intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) “loaded with a hypersonic maneuverable controlled warhead,” saying the launch “never affected the security of any neighboring country and had nothing to do with the regional situation."​​​​​​​

The launch reportedly marked the first-ever test of a solid-fuel hypersonic IRBM.