North Korea on Monday launched two new projectiles, probably ballistic missiles according to Seoul, its fourth weapons test since the beginning of the year.
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Pyongyang has accelerated its weapons tests in recent weeks, the regime of Kim Jong Un seeking to strengthen the military capabilities of the country subject to heavy international sanctions, while refusing offers of dialogue from the United States.
The two “short-range ballistic missiles” were launched from an airport near Pyongyang shortly before 9 a.m. Monday and traveled 380 km at an altitude of 42 km, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The new trials come at a delicate time for the region, as a presidential election is scheduled for March in South Korea, and China, North Korea’s only major ally, prepares to host the Olympics on next month.
The frequency and variety of tests show that North Korea is “trying to improve its technology and operational capabilities to carry out covert actions, so that other countries have a hard time detecting the preparatory signs of a launch”, he said. said Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi during a press briefing.
“North Korea’s remarkable development of its missile technology cannot be ignored, for the security of Japan and the region,” he warned.
North Korea notably claimed to have successfully tested hypersonic glide missiles, a particularly sophisticated weapon, on January 5 and 11, the second launch being supervised by Kim Jong Un himself.
Hypersonic missiles can reach five times the speed of sound or more. They are faster and more maneuverable than standard missiles, making them more difficult for defense systems, on which the United States spends billions of dollars, to intercept.
The United States retaliated last week with new sanctions, which Pyongyang called a “provocation”.
“certain reaction”
If “the United States adopts such a confrontational attitude, the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the official name of North Korea, editor’s note) will be forced into a certain and stronger reaction”, warned a door- word of the North Korean Foreign Ministry on Friday.
In its five-year defense plan, unveiled in January 2021, North Korea cited hypersonic missiles as its number one priority, as dialogue with the United States over its ballistic and nuclear program remains at a standstill.
The country is going through a serious economic crisis, aggravated by sanctions and by the closure of its self-imposed borders in the name of the fight against Covid-19, and the regime “needs to present something to the North Koreans”, estimates Cheing Seong-chang, from the Center for North Korean Studies at the Sejong Institute.
Pyongyang seeks to impress the population with military prowess since “it has become clear that the North will have difficulty in shining on the economic ground”, advances this analyst.
A North Korean freight train crossed the international bridge over the Yalu River last weekend and entered China, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported. An event that could mean the resumption of land trade between the two countries, suspended since the start of the pandemic about two years ago.
“This timing suggests Beijing is more than complicit in Pyongyang’s provocations,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha Women’s University in Seoul. According to him, “China supports North Korea economically, and coordinates with it from the military point of view”.