North Korea yesterday fired several rockets into the sea in a continuation of its rapid nuclear and missile expansion, prompting South Korea to press ahead with military drills involving US troops that have angered Pyongyang.
The US Pacific Command revised its initial assessment that the first and third short-range missiles failed during flight to say they flew about 250km.
It said that the second missile appears to have blown up immediately and that none posed a threat to the US territory of Guam, which the North had previously warned it would fire missiles toward.
Photo: AFP
South Korea’s presidential office and military said North Korea fired “several” projectiles in what was presumed to be a test of its 300mm rocket artillery system.
Kim Dong-yub, a former South Korean military official who is now an analyst at the Seoul-based Institute for Far Eastern Studies, said that the South Korean assessment does not necessarily contradict the US evaluation that the launches involved ballistic missiles.
North Korea’s large-sized artillery rockets blur the boundaries between artillery systems and ballistic missiles, because they create their own thrust and are guided during delivery, Kim said.
The presidential office said the US and South Korean militaries would proceed with their ongoing war games “even more thoroughly” in response to the launches.
They are the first known missile firings since last month, when the North successfully tested a pair of intercontinental ballistic missiles that analysts have said could reach deep into the continental US if perfected.
The White House said that US President Donald Trump — who has warned that he would unleash “fire and fury” if the North continued its threats — was briefed on the latest North Korean activity, adding: “We are monitoring the situation.”
Yesterday’s launches occurred during an annual joint military exercise between the US and South Korea that the North condemns as an invasion rehearsal, and weeks after Pyongyang threatened to lob missiles toward Guam.
North Korea walked back from that threat, but there had been concerns that hostility would flare up again during the Ulchi-Freedom Guardian drills between the allies that run through Thursday.
However, some experts have said that North Korea is now mainly focused on the bigger picture of testing its bargaining power against the US with its new long-range missiles and likely has no interest in letting things get too tense during the drills.
They have said the North might limit its reactions to low-level provocations, such as artillery and short-range missile launches.
While the projectile that supposedly blew up immediately after launch was clearly a failure, Kim said the other missiles could have been tests of developmental technologies or deliberate detonations at certain heights and locations.
If the South Korean assessments are correct, the North might have conducted tests to expand the range of its 300mm multiple-rocket launchers, which are believed to have a range of up to 200km, Kim said.
Earlier yesterday, state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspected an army special operations forces exercise that simulated attacks on South Korean islands along the western sea border, which appeared to be in response to the ongoing US-South Korea war games.
He reportedly told his troops that they “should think of mercilessly wiping out the enemy with arms only and occupying Seoul in one go and the southern half of Korea.”
The “target-striking contest” involved warplanes, multiple-rocket launchers and self-propelled guns that attacked targets meant to represent South Korea’s Baengnyeong and Yeonpyeong islands before special operations forces “landed by surprise” on rubber boats, KCNA said.
The border islands have occasionally seen military skirmishes between the rivals, including a North Korean artillery barrage on Yeonpyeong in 2010 that left two South Korean marines and two civilians dead.
In response to North Korea’s expanding nuclear weapons program, South Korea has been moving to strengthen its own capabilities, planning talks with the US on raising the warhead limits on its missiles and taking steps to place additional launchers of a US ballistic missile defense system in the country’s southeast.
South Korea has also been testing new missiles of its own, including the Hyunmoo-2, which has a range of 800km. Although that missile has not been operationally deployed yet, it is considered a key component to the so-called “kill chain” pre-emptive strike capability the South is pursuing to cope with the North’s growing nuclear and missile threat.
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