- North Korea test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile.
- The sudden launch of the drill was ordered by Kim Jong Un.
- The test was a warning to Washington and South Korea.
SEOUL: North Korea announced Sunday it has test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile as a warning to Washington and Seoul, saying the successful “surprise” drill underlined Pyongyang’s “power of deadly nuclear counterattack”.
The “sudden launching drill” was ordered by Kim Jong Un at 8 a.m. Saturday (2300 GMT), and a Hwasong-15 missile — a weapon first tested by the North in 2017 — was shot from Pyongyang airport that afternoon, according to the official KCNA.
The South Korean military said it detected an ICBM launch at 17:22 (0822 GMT) Saturday, which Japan said flew for 66 minutes before splashing down in its Exclusive Economic Zone, indicating it was capable of hitting the mainland United States.
North Korea’s leadership praised the test, the country’s first in seven weeks, saying it demonstrated “the actual war capacity of the ICBM units, which are ready for a mobile and mighty counterattack,” according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
The launch was “actual proof” of the country’s “capability of fatal nuclear reprisal on hostile forces,” according to the statement.
The sanctions-evading launch came just days before Seoul and Washington were set to begin joint tabletop exercises aimed at sharpening their response to a North Korean nuclear assault.
Pyongyang warned last week of an “unprecedentedly” forceful response to impending drills, which it sees as war preparations and blames for the Korean peninsula’s deteriorating security situation.
New milestone?
The Saturday test is significant as “the event was ordered the day-of and so this is not so much a traditional ‘test’, but an exercise,” US-based analyst Ankit Panda told to the sources.
“We should expect to see additional exercises of this sort,” he added.
The exercise appeared to be “Kim’s way of telling the US and ROK that his country is continuing to hone its ballistic missile capabilities for eventual use in a real-time scenario”, said Soo Kim, a former CIA Korea analyst who now works at management consulting firm LMI.
“The weapons aren’t for display only,” she told sources. “This layer of imminence is probably intended to intimidate the allies, notably as they’re making efforts to strengthen deterrence in the Korean Peninsula.”
But the nine-hour process from Kim Jong Un’s order to the actual launch was “a long time”, she said, suggesting Pyongyang may face “greater challenges in launching in a realistic scenario”.
Relations between the two Koreas are already at an all-time low, following North Korea’s declaration of an “irreversible” nuclear state and leader Kim’s desire for an “exponential” increase in weapon manufacturing, including tactical nukes.
As a result, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has moved to strengthen ties with vital security ally America, promising to expand cooperative military drills and bolster Washington’s so-called extended deterrence offering, which includes nuclear assets.
On Sunday, a North Korean spokeswoman and Kim’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, stated it was these moves by Seoul and Washington that “further endangers the situation every moment, shattering the stability of the area”, according to a report.
“I warn that we will watch every movement of the enemy and take corresponding and very powerful and overwhelming counteraction against its every move hostile to us,” she added.
Food shortages?
All of this points to “the start of high-intensity provocations from North Korea,” Park Won-gon, professor at Ewha University.
“What’s different from 2022 is that last year their justification was that the launches were part of their five-year military plan,” he said.
“Now they are making clear that they will counter the United States and South Korea.”
According to Park, Pyongyang’s increased assertiveness could also suggest that the domestic situation has deteriorated. South Korean officials have warned that the country may face serious food shortages as a result of years of pandemic-related isolation.
“North Korea always takes a hardline approach and creates external crises as part of its ‘seize mentality’ tactic to overcome internal struggles. It is typical North Korean behavior to unite the people by highlighting the South Korea-US threat.”
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