State media yesterday showed North Korean leader Kim Jong-un observing live-fire drills of long-range multiple rocket launchers and what appeared to be a new short-range ballistic missile, a day after South Korea expressed concern that the launches were in contravention of an inter-Korean agreement to cease all hostile acts.
Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said that Kim expressed “great satisfaction” over Saturday’s drills and stressed that his front-line troops should keep a “high alert posture” and enhance their combat ability to “defend the political sovereignty and economic self-sustenance of the country.”
The weapon launches were a likely sign of Pyongyang’s growing frustration at stalled diplomatic talks with Washington meant to provide coveted sanctions relief in return for nuclear disarmament.
Photo: AFP / KCNA VIA KNS
They also highlighted the fragility of the detente between the Koreas, which in a military agreement reached in September last year vowed to completely cease “all hostile acts” against each other in land, air and sea.
South Korea said it is “very concerned” about North Korea’s weapons launches, calling them a breach of the agreements to reduce animosities between the countries.
The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) initially on Saturday said that the North launched a single missile from the site near the coastal town of Wonsan, but later said in a statement that “several projectiles” had been fired.
In its updated assessment yesterday, the JCS did not confirm whether the North fired a ballistic missile, but said a “new tactical guided weapon” was among the weapons tested, which also included 240mm and 300mm-caliber multiple rocket launchers.
The various projectiles flew from 70km to 240km before splashing into sea, the JCS said.
The North’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper published photographs that showed Kim, equipped with binoculars, observing tests of different weapons systems, including multiple rocket launchers and what appeared to be a short-range missile fired from a launch vehicle, as well as an explosion of what seemed to be a target set on island rocks.
“[Kim] stressed the need for all the service members to keep a high alert posture and more dynamically wage the drive to increase the combat ability so as to defend the political sovereignty and economic self-sustenance of the country and ... the security of the people from the threats and invasion by any forces,” the KCNA reported.
The North Korean missile appeared to be modeled after Russia’s 9K720 Iskander mobile short-range ballistic missile system, said Kim Dong-yub, an analyst from Seoul’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies.
The new missile would be potentially capable of delivering nuclear warheads and striking targets as far away as 500km, which puts the entire Korean Peninsula within reach, said Kim Dong-yub, who based his analysis on the capabilities of the Iskander and North Korea’s missile technology levels.
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