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U.S. Army and South Korean military respond to North Korea’s launch with missile exercise

This image made from video of a news bulletin aired by North Korea’s KRT on Tuesday, July 4, 2017, shows what was said to be North Korea leader Kim Jung Un, center, watching the launch of a Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile, ICBM, in North Korea’s northwest. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this photo. North Korea claimed to have tested its first intercontinental ballistic missile in a launch Tuesday, a potential game-changing development in its push to militarily challenge Washington but a declaration that conflicts with earlier South Korean and U.S. assessments that it had an intermediate range. (KRT)
By Dan Lamothe Washington Post

ATTN: National, Foreign editors; Adds more details

Dan Lamothe

(c) 2017, The Washington Post.

The U.S. Army and South Korean military responded to North Korea’s launch with their own exercise of missiles, launching them Tuesday into South Korean territorial waters along the country’s eastern coastline, U.S. Pacific Command said in a statement. The launches were directly in response to “North Korea’s destabilizing and unlawful actions,” Pacific Command said.

The Army used its Army Tactical Missile System and South Korea used its Hyunmoo Missile II, which can be deployed rapidly and provide “deep strike precision capability,” Pacific Command said.

The South Korean-U.S. military alliance “remains committed to peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula and throughout the Asia-Pacific,” Pacific Command said. “The U.S. commitment to the defense of the (Republic of Korea) in the face of threats is ironclad.”

Earlier Tuesday, North Korea launched a missile that flew higher and remained in the air longer than previous attempts, enough to reach all of Alaska, experts said, in a milestone for North Korea’s weapons program.

The Army describes the missiles it used as long-range, all-weather guided missiles. They are designed to be precise in nature, and can be used beyond the range of artillery and rockets.

The U.S. missile system can be used to take out ground combat units, surface-to-surface missile units, air-defense units, helicopter re-arming and refueling systems or communications sites, according to an Army fact sheet.

Some of the missiles in the system are designed to deliver a single, 500-pound warhead on a target through the use of satellite guidance, while others distribute hundreds of smaller bomblets over a larger distance, according to the Army.

Dana White, a Pentagon spokesperson, confirmed in a statement Tuesday night that the missile North Korea used was an intercontinental ballistic, and described it as a “escalatory launch.”

“The launch continues to demonstrate that North Korea poses a threat to the United States and our allies,” White said. “Together with the Republic of Korea, we conducted a combined exercise to show our precision fire capability.”

White said that the United States remains prepared to defend itself and allies and to use “the full range of capabilities at our disposal against the growing threat from North Korea.” The United States seeks only the peaceful denuclearization of the Korea Peninsula, and its commitment to its allies is ironclad, she added.