North Korea fired a volley of missiles on Wednesday, including likely its largest intercontinental ballistic missile, hours after US President Joe Biden left the region.
In addition, ‘tests of a nuclear detonation device in preparation for a seventh nuclear test’ have been detected, said Kim Tae-hyo, first deputy director of South Korea’s National Security Bureau, adding that a nuclear test could be imminent.
Seoul said at least three missiles were fired from Sunan, a Pyongyang suburb, toward the Sea of Japan at 6 a.m. (11 p.m. Swiss), 6:37 a.m. and 6:42 a.m. “It was judged that the first launch was of the new ICBM, the Hwasong-17,” said Kim Tae-hyo. It is the largest intercontinental ballistic missile that North Korea has ever unsuccessfully attempted to test.
‘Provocation’
This salvo, which adds to about twenty tests fired by Pyongyang this year, provoked in response the firing of missiles and the mobilization of American and South Korean fighter planes, the two countries denouncing the continuous ‘provocations’ of the North Korean regime.
Seoul denounced ‘an illegal act in direct violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions’. Washington has also ‘condemned the multiple ballistic missile launches’ by North Korea, a US State Department spokesperson said late Tuesday, calling on Pyongyang ‘to refrain from further provocations and engage in a constructive substantive dialogue’.
“The first ballistic missile (the alleged ICBM) had a range of about 360 kilometers and an altitude of about 540 kilometers,” the South Korean general staff said in a statement. The second ‘disappeared at an altitude of 20 kilometres’ and the third projectile – a suspected short-range ballistic missile – traveled around 760 kilometers at an altitude of around 60 kilometres.
‘Irregular’ trajectory
Japan’s defense ministry said one of the ballistic missiles followed “an irregular trajectory”. Pyongyang is working on technology to maneuver the missiles after launch, including ‘hypersonic glide technology’, which would make it harder for missile defense systems to intercept.
The North Korean regime, under United Nations sanctions over its weapons programs, has accelerated its missile testing in recent months, blaming the United States’ “hostile” attitude. It tested an intercontinental ballistic missile in March for the first time since 2017.
And South Korean and American intelligence services suspect him of planning an imminent nuclear test, his first in five years.
Message to Joe Biden
The trials were “clearly timed for President Biden’s return from his visit to South Korea and Japan,” said Park Won-gon, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.
During his stay in Seoul, the American president and his South Korean counterpart Yoon Suk-yeol, according to the latter, mentioned an intensification of their joint military exercises, as well as the deployment in the peninsula of fighter planes or missiles , ‘to prepare for a nuclear attack’.
According to Mr Park, the North Korean missile launches were intended to show ‘North Korea’s objections’ to the announcements.
Shortly before leaving South Korea on Sunday for Japan, questioned by a journalist who asked him if he had a message for the North Korean leader, Joe Biden replied with a laconic: ‘Hello. Period’. A way of making it known that Washington remains open to dialogue with North Korea, even in the absence of reciprocity.
Talks stalled
Talks with Pyongyang have stalled since a failed summit in 2019 between Mr Kim and then-US President Donald Trump. The North Korean regime ignored all offers of dialogue made by Washington.
South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin and American Antony Blinken spoke on the phone after the launches on Wednesday, the foreign ministry said.
They called it ‘deeply deplorable’ that North Korea was ‘using its main financial resources for the development of nuclear weapons and missiles rather than for the quarantine and improvement of people’s livelihoods’ in the epidemic of Covid-19 which strikes it.
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