The twin surface-to-surface missile launches by North Korea on September 15 were made from a train, the country’s media has revealed.
Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the state news agency of North Korea, confirmed a day later that those missiles came from the country’s test of its new “railway-borne missile system.” The report claimed that the missiles flew 800 km (~500 miles) before striking a target in the sea off North Korea’s east coast.
Photographs released by state media showed an olive-green missile rising on a column of smoke and flame from the roof of a train parked on tracks in a mountainous area.
Pyongyang’s neighbours, South Korea and Japan, detected the launch of the two ballistic missiles, which came less than a week after it tested a long-range cruise missile.
France’s ambassador to the UN, Nicolas de Riviere, said members of the UN Security Council gathered behind closed doors for an emergency meeting to discuss North Korea’s tests.