Breaking Defense:

The large ICBMs displayed by North Korea during military parades, such as the one in Pyongyang last week, always catch a lot of attention. But while there are some hints to capabilities from observing the missiles, the truest test of the DPRK’s missile designs come from live launches. And there is an unfortunate amount of cases to draw from.

Most dramatically, in a test on Oct. 4, an intermediate range ballistic missile overflew Japan, the first time a DPRK launch took such a trajectory since 2017. The missile reportedly flew more than 4,500 km and reached an altitude of 965 km, passing well over Japan before landing in the Pacific Ocean. And as with all North Korean launches, the effort was on to try and identify whether this is a known weapon or a new design.

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