China’s military test-launched a long-range ballistic missile Monday from one of its nuclear-powered submarines in the South Pacific. The missile was launched at 12:01 p.m. and carried a dummy warhead, according to an announcement by the official Xinhua News Agency. The New Zealand government said it was informed of the planned launch hours beforehand. “It appears that despite our long-standing concerns about this type of activity, China carried out the test within hours of informing us,” Foreign Minister Winston Peters told The Associated Press in a statement. "The Pacific is an Ocean of Peace and we are deeply concerned by China's testing of nuclear-capable weapons into the South Pacific," he said in a statement, adding that the launch "is not consistent with regional stability.”
