North Korea fired what was likely an intercontinental ballistic missile into waters off Japan early Wednesday local time, U.S., Japanese and South Korean authorities said, ending a more than two-month hiatus from Pyongyang and threatening to ramp up tensions with the U.S. and in the region.
The launch demonstrated a trajectory that could put Washington in range of North Korean missiles, independent experts said. It triggered an unusually robust reaction from South Korea, which quickly responded with a battery of test-firings of its own.
The launch came weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump visited the region and roughly a week after he redesignated North Korea as a state sponsor of terror. Mr. Trump, speaking to reporters Tuesday, mentioned the North Korean missile launch and vowed, “We will take care of it,” without specifying what actions he might take.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said on Twitter that Mr. Trump had been briefed on the launch while the missile was still in the air.
The missile, which Pentagon spokesman Col. Robert Manning said had been initially identified as an ICBM, was fired at 2:47 a.m. Pyongyang time—1:17 p.m. Tuesday in Washington—from a site about 20 miles north of the capital, Pyongyang. It flew about 620 miles before splashing down in the waters between Japan and the Korean Peninsula inside Japan’s exclusive economic zone, which extends 200 nautical miles from the Japanese coast.
Despite the missile landing relatively…