NORTH KOREA MISSILES
Seoul, Jan 17 (EFE) .- North Korea today fired two short-range ballistic missiles in its fourth launch of the year, a few days after threatening to harden its position due to US hostility. and in line with the promised Strengthening your arsenal.
The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JSC) detected the launch of two projectiles at 8:50 and 8:54 local time on Monday (23:50 and 23:54 GMT on Sunday) from the town of Sunan, near Pionyang, in the west of the territory, and in the direction of the Sea of Japan (called the East Sea in Korea), to the east of the peninsula.
According to South Korean and US intelligence analyses, the projectiles flew about 380 kilometers at a maximum altitude of 42 km before falling into the sea, data that coincides with the estimates of the Japanese armed forces, which also monitor North Korean weapons activity by the proximity to its territory.
Seoul and Washington “are conducting a detailed analysis” of the launches “to obtain more specific information,” the JSC said in a statement collected by the South Korean news agency Yonhap.
Today’s launch, the fourth of 2022, comes three days after Pyongyang launched two short-range ballistic missiles from a train, showing the regime’s apparent determination to diversify its launch platforms with the intention of making detection more difficult. of their missiles.
This brings to six the projectiles tested by the regime so far this year, after the two shots on the 14th and those on the 5th and 11th, in which the regime launched what it claims are hypersonic missiles, in a deployment of the sophistication of his arsenal.
DIVERSIFICATION AND PREPARATION
Recent North Korean launches highlight the regime’s reluctance to engage in dialogue and North Korea’s evolving capabilities to launch missiles from various platforms, including trains, ground installations, and even underground.
“These missile launches highlight the destabilizing impact of the DPRK’s (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, official name for North Korea) illicit weapons program,” the US Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement.
Both the South Korean and Japanese governments called the ballistic test “extremely regrettable,” and said they would remain vigilant against North Korean activities.
The weapons that North Korea has been testing since 2019 have shown greater sophistication when it comes to circumventing radar systems and potentially pose a growing threat to the anti-missile shields of neighboring countries.
The recent launches from a train are the second of their kind for Pyongyang, while those carried out with the alleged hypersonic projectiles constituted the second and third, after the first carried out in both cases last September.
The South Korean military believes that the North Korean regime’s objective with such successive tests could be to confirm and refine its capabilities to successively launch missiles with more precision.
“STRONGEST AND DETERMINED REACTION”
North Korea threatened last week to react in a “stronger and more determined” way to the recent imposition of sanctions by the US on several people, including six North Korean citizens, linked to the regime’s weapons programs.
Hours later he conducted his most recent missile test, to date, with which he said he wanted to “verify and judge the proficiency” of the rail unit’s readiness and devices at short notice.
Today’s releases seem to confirm Pyongyang’s threat to toughen its rhetoric and muscle in on what it considers a “hostile” attitude from Washington, and is in line with what North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said in his message to New Year, in which he assured that the country’s priority is the economy and the reinforcement of national defense.
The disinterest shown by Pyongyang for months towards dialogue, the renewed US willingness to tighten sanctions and the four North Korean weapons tests that have taken place in just over two weeks echo the tensions that existed between the two countries in 2017.
The North Korean escalation and the heterodox style of then US President Donald Trump ended up later giving rise to a carousel of summits between Trump himself and the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, which lowered that tension, despite the fact that they finally led to a blockage in the negotiations. that persists today.
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