SEOUL: Nuclear-armed North Korea conducted what would be its largest missile test since 2017 on Sunday, after governments in Japan and South Korea reported a suspected ballistic missile launch that soared deep into space.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff reported that a projectile believed to be a single ballistic missile was launched from North Korea’s Jagang Province toward the ocean off its east coast.
South Korea’s National Security Council, which convened an emergency meeting presided over by President Moon Jae-in, said the test involved an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), which North Korea has not tested since 2017.
Moon said that with the launch, North Korea was taking a step closer to fully scrapping a self-imposed moratorium on testing nuclear weapons or its longest-range intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).
He noted that this month’s flurry of missile tests was reminiscent of the heightened tensions in 2017, when North Korea conducted multiple nuclear tests and launched its largest missiles, including some that flew over Japan.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has said he is no longer bound by that moratorium, which was announced in 2018 amid a flurry of diplomacy and summits with then-US President Donald Trump.
North Korea’s rulers suggested this month they could restart those testing activities because the United States and its allies had shown no sign of dropping their “hostile policies.” It is unclear if IRBMs were included in Kim’s moratorium, but those, too, have not been tested since 2017.
South Korea’s JCS and Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno separately said the missile is estimated to have reached an altitude of 2,000km and flown for 30 minutes to a distance of 800km. IRBMs typically have ranges of 600 to 3,500 miles, while ICBMs have ranges exceeding 3,500 miles.
Missile experts said the data could indicate a test of an IRBM such as the Hwasong-12, which was last tested in 2017, or a new type. The latest launches included a test of two short-range ballistic missiles and their warheads on Thursday, and an updated long-range cruise missile system tested on Tuesday.
The test comes less than a week before the opening of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, which is North Korea’s main political and economic partner. Pyongyang has said it would be skipping the Games because of the COVID-19 pandemic and “hostile forces.”
In an address ahead of the New Year, Kim Jong Un called for bolstering the military with cutting-edge technology at a time when talks with South Korea and the United States have stalled. Since then, North Korea has tested a dizzying array of weapon types, launch locations, and increasing sophistication. read more
Jagang Province was the site of two launches this month of what North Korea said was a “hypersonic missile,” which could reach high speeds while flying and maneuvering at relatively low altitudes, but the ranges reported on Sunday were higher and farther than those earlier tests.
From hypersonic missiles and long-range cruise missiles to missiles launched from rail cars and airports, the tests highlight the nuclear-armed state’s rapidly expanding and advancing arsenal amid stalled denuclearisation talks.
Pyongyang has defended the launches as its sovereign right of self defence and say they are not directed at any specific country, but accused Washington and Seoul of having “hostile policies.”
Kim visited a munitions factory last week, where he called for “an all-out drive” to produce “powerful cutting-edge arms,” and its workers touted his devotion to “smashing … the challenges of the US imperialists and their vassal forces” seeking to violate their right to self-defence, calling it “the harshest-ever adversity.”
