In the early hours of November 29, the North Koreans launched a new ICBM.

As has been the case in recent years, they used a so-called lofted trajectory: the missile first went as high as possible, to an unprecedented altitude of some 4500 km, and then returned to the earth.

This time, it was launched in the vicinity of Pyongyang, near the city of Pyongsong, a major center of both military research and private business.

The lofted trajectory is different from the much lower trajectories that missiles are likely to use in case of a