Following US warnings to North Korea of a “massive military response,” South Korea yesterday fired missiles into the sea to simulate an attack on the North’s main nuclear test site, a day after North Korea detonated its largest-ever nuclear test explosion.
The South Korean Ministry of Defense yesterday said that North Korea appeared to be planning another missile launch, possibly of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), to show off its claimed ability to target the US with nuclear weapons, although it was unclear when this might happen.
The heated words from the US and the military maneuvers in South Korea are becoming familiar responses to North Korea’s rapid, as-yet unchecked pursuit of a viable arsenal of nuclear-tipped missiles that can strike the US.
Photo: AFP
The most recent advance came on Sunday in an underground test of what North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s government claimed was a hydrogen bomb, the North’s sixth nuclear test since 2006.
The UN Security Council plans to hold its second emergency meeting about North Korea on Monday next week to discuss responses.
South Korean Ministry of National Defense official Chang Kyung-soo yesterday told lawmakers that the ministry was seeing preparations in the North for an ICBM test, but did not provide details about how officials had reached that assessment.
Photo: AFP
Chang also said the yield from the latest nuclear detonation appeared to be about 50 kilotonnes, which would mark a “significant increase” from North Korea’s past nuclear tests.
In a series of tweets, US President Donald Trump threatened to halt all trade with countries doing business with North Korea, a warning to China, and faulted South Korea for what he called “talk of appeasement.”
In response, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Geng Shuang (耿爽) yesterday told reporters in Beijing that China regarded as “unacceptable a situation in which on the one hand we work to resolve this issue peacefully, but on the other hand our own interests are subject to sanctions and jeopardized. This is neither objective nor fair.”
The South Korean military said its live-fire exercise was meant to “strongly warn” North Korea. The drill involved F-15 jets and the country’s land-based Hyunmoo ballistic missiles firing into the Sea of Japan.
The target was set considering the distance to North Korea’s test site and the exercise was aimed at practicing precision strikes and cutting off reinforcements, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
The Arms Control Association in the US said Sunday’s explosion appeared to produce a yield in excess of 100 kilotonnes of TNT equivalent, which it said strongly suggests North Korea tested a high-yield, but compact nuclear weapon that could be launched on a missile of intermediate or intercontinental range.
Meanwhile, South Korean President Moon Jae-in is attracting flak for his policy of pursuing engagement with Pyongyang.
Moon is facing growing calls at home to change course and take a tougher line against the North, even from his core support base of young liberals, according to hundreds of comments posted online.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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