Intercontinental ballistic missile

Kiev accused Russia of launching an intercontinental ballistic missile attack at Ukraine for the first time on Thursday but without a nuclear warhead in a new escalation of the conflict.

Ukraine said the missile had targeted the central city of Dnipro, while the Kremlin said it was doing everything possible to avoid a nuclear conflict but did not confirm it had deployed the weapon.

North Korea fired a salvo of short-range ballistic missiles early Tuesday, Seoul's military reported, marking Pyongyang's second launch in days and occurring just hours before Americans vote for a new president.

North Korea launched a series of short-range ballistic missiles toward the East Sea early Tuesday morning, an act confirmed by military sources in South Korea and Japan just hours before the United States began its presidential elections.

South Korea, Japan, and the United States on Sunday conducted a joint air drill involving a nuclear-capable bomber, Seoul's military said, in response to North Korea's latest long-range missile test.

Japan's Defence Ministry reported that North Korea launched a suspected intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on Thursday morning. The missile was fired at 7:11 a.m. local time from an interior location within North Korea, flying eastward before landing in waters about 200 kilometers west of Hokkaido's Okushiri Island at approximately 8:37 a.m., according to NHK World.

This picture taken and released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Oct. 31, 2024 shows the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) during a test-fire conducted by the Missile Administration at an undisclosed location in North Korea. North Korea said Oct.

China said it test-launched an intercontinental ballistic missile on Wednesday, firing it into the Pacific Ocean in its first such exercise in decades.

Beijing has stepped up its nuclear development and boosted defense spending in recent years, with the Pentagon last October warning China was developing its arsenal more quickly than the United States had anticipated.

The test launch of a Russian RS-28 Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile likely failed earlier this month, according to experts and satellite images from the launch site.

As global geopolitical tensions escalate, nuclear powers are modernizing their arsenals, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). The institute's researchers have urged world leaders to reconsider their approaches, emphasizing that nuclear weapons have not played such a significant role in international relations since the Cold War.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw a successful test of a solid-fuel engine for a "new-type intermediate-range hypersonic missile", Pyongyang's state media said Wednesday.

The test was carried out on Tuesday by the North's Missile Administration at the Sohae Satellite Launching Ground in the northwest of the country, according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).