North Korea boosts firepower by testing most powerful missile since 2017

Pyongyang has never before tested so many missiles in a calendar month and last week threatened to abandon its nearly five-year-long self-imposed moratorium on long-range and nuclear weapons testing, laying its hands on Blamed America’s “hostile” policy for forcing. ,

With peace talks with Washington stalled, North Korea has doubled down on leader Kim Jong Un’s regime’s resolve to modernize its armed forces, flexing Pyongyang’s military muscles despite cutting international sanctions.

South Korea said on Sunday that North Korea is following a “similar pattern” to 2017 – when tensions on the peninsula peaked – warning Pyongyang may soon resume nuclear and intercontinental missile tests.

South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in said in a statement after an emergency meeting of Seoul’s National Security Council, North Korea “has come close to destroying the postponement”.

South Korea’s military said on Sunday it had “detected a medium-range ballistic missile fired at a high angle eastward toward the East Sea”.

Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile struck at a maximum altitude of 2,000 kilometers (1,200 mi) and covered a range of about 800 kilometers for half an hour.

In an elevated trajectory, missiles are fired at a high angle rather than out of their full range.

“North Korea conducted similar tests in 2017 with its emerging medium and long-range missile technology,” tweeted Chad O’Carroll of specialist website NK News.

“So that would mean that today’s test involves one of those missile types — or potentially something new. In other words, a big deal.”

Pyongyang last tested the Hwasong-12 missile in 2017, which analysts at the time said was powerful enough to border US territory of Guam.

Japan’s top government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno said on Sunday that the ballistic missile was “one with intermediate range or long range”.

The United States condemned the launch, with a State Department spokesman saying it was a “clear violation” of several UN Security Council resolutions.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield described the launch of ABC’s “This Week” program as “provocative”, and said the US was “completely open to diplomatic engagement without any preconditions”.

“Our goal is to put an end to the threatening actions of the DPRK against our neighbours,” he said.

– ‘The time is ripe’ –

Pyongyang has twice this month tested hypersonic missiles, as well as four launches of short-range ballistic and cruise missiles.

Washington imposed new restrictions on the tests, prompting Pyongyang to respond “strong and definitive” to any attempt to rein in it.

Last week, leader Kim was seen by state media inspecting a “critical” munitions factory that produces “a major weapons system”.

“Kim is curbing his appetite for testing and provocation,” Soo Kim, an analyst at the Rand Corporation, told AFP.

Now, however, “the time is ripe, and North Korea’s continued missile firing will throw another ditch in the already high plate of Washington’s foreign policy challenges”, she said.

The missiles frenzy aims to remind the world that “the Kim regime listens to outside discussions of its domestic vulnerabilities”, said Professor Leif-Eric Easley of the University of Iwah.

“It wants to remind Washington and Seoul that trying to take it down would be very costly.”

The 2022 launch comes at a critical time in the region, with Kim’s only major ally China set to host the Winter Olympics next month and South Korea gearing up for a presidential election in March.

Domestically, North Korea is preparing to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the birth of late leader Kim Jong Il in February, as well as the 110th birthday of founder Kim Il Sung in April.