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Politics

North Korea can now target Japan with a nuclear missile

Behind the scenes, Russia pulls the strings in a proxy fight with the US

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A Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missile was successfully test-fired, reports the Rodong Sinmun newspaper of the Workers' Party of Korea on June 15.   © Kyodo

TOKYO -- One of North Korea's missile test-firings in May suggests that the country's ballistics development program is nearly complete.

On May 14, Pyongyang launched an intermediate-range missile, what it calls a Hwasong-12. The projectile reached an altitude of more than 2,000km -- well out of the Earth's atmosphere, which is about 480km thick -- then hit the Sea of Japan while traveling at least Mach 15.

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