North Korea, in the Spotlight Over Ukraine, Launches a Long-Range Missile

North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile off its east coast on Thursday, shortly after the United States and South Korea condemned the country for deploying troops near Ukraine to join Russia’s war effort.

The missile was fired from Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, at a deliberately steep angle so that it reached an unusually high altitude but did not fly over Japan, the South Korean military said in a brief statement. The missile landed in waters between North Korea and Japan.

The military said it was analyzing data to learn more about the missile, but that it believed it was an ICBM. North Korea last tested a long-range missile​ in December, when it test-fired its solid-fueled Hwasong-18 ICBM.

North Korea confirmed later Thursday that its military had launched an ICBM, saying that its leader, Kim Jong-un, had been present. North Korea “will never change its line of bolstering up its nuclear forces,” Mr. Kim was quoted as saying by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.

The launch on Thursday was the North’s first major weapons test since September, when it fired a new type of Hwasong-11 short-range ballistic missile, which it said could carry a “super-large” conventional warhead weighing 4.5 tons.

On Wednesday, South Korean defense intelligence officials told lawmakers that North Korea might conduct long-range missile tests before the American presidential election next week. They also said that the North was preparing to conduct its seventh underground nuclear test, in a bid to raise tensions and gain diplomatic leverage with the next U.S. president. North Korea conducted its last nuclear test in 2017.