USA successfully tests ICBM defense system amid rising North Korea tensions

A ground-based interceptor launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California "successfully intercepted an intercontinental ballistic missile target" fired from the Reagan Test Site in the Marshall Islands, the Pentagon announced.

The ground-based interceptor system is mainly created to counter a North Korean missile threat, but a USA official said Tuesday's long-scheduled test was coincidental to North Korea's increased missile testing this year.

The $244 million us test over the Pacific Ocean yesterday comes after North Korea launched its ninth missile of the year Monday, a short-range weapon that landed in the Sea of Japan.

The military has conducted 17 tests of its missile-defense system, only 9 have been successful.

Tuesday's test was a critical milestone for a program that has been hampered by setbacks over the years, he said.

The long-planned test vindicated the expensive, complicated effort to defend the United States homeland from missile attacks -but there's still no stopping a real attack from a determined foe like North Korea.

The interceptor struck the simulated ICBM, launched from a test range on Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific, as it traveled outside the Earth's atmosphere. "They continue to conduct test launches, as we saw even this weekend, while also using risky rhetoric that suggests that they would strike the United States homeland".

Defense officials said, "It's the proverbial bullet hitting a bullet".

"The track record of the ballistic missile defense system in these tests is mixed, but the Pentagon says the hit shows that it's making progress". The interceptor was launched from Vandenberg AFB at midday and targeted a simulated incoming warhead launched from the central Pacific Ocean.

Philip E. Coyle, a senior science fellow at the center who formerly headed the Pentagon's Office of Operational Test and Evaluation, said the Ground-based Midcourse Defense program had "a long way to go", saying "40 percent isn't a passing grade".

In an interview with Radio Sputnik, Alexander Zhilin, head of the Center for Social Aspects of National Security, suggested that the United States conducted a "demonstrative" test.

The test reportedly cost the USA almost $250 million.

On Monday, North Korea fired a SCUD missile into the Sea of Japan, reaching into Japan's "Exclusive Economic Zone", meaning that the test missile could have posed a danger to ships and other maritime activities off of Japan's coastline, though no damage was reported.

The launch was a simulation of an attack by a North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile or ICBM. "Iran also continues to develop more sophisticated missiles and improve the range and accuracy of current missile systems".