Another day, another defiant weapons test from North Korea. A day after launching two ballistic missiles from a base near the border with archrival South Korea, Pyongyang yesterday fired a barrage of artillery shells into waters near its sea border with the South.
Officials in Seoul have confirmed nearly 100 missile, rocket and artillery tests by North Korea this year, an output seen as significantly higher than that of the past years.
Analysts say the regular test-firings of short-range projectiles are the latest sign that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, is determined to do things differently than his father and predecessor Kim Jong-il, who died in late 2011.
Analysts see no end to the test-firings in sight and they say that Kim Jong-un, who pushed tensions to extraordinary levels last year with threats of nuclear strikes against Seoul and Washington, will likely order his military to keep the launches up until the US and South Korea make major concessions, such as scaling down their regular joint military drills that Pyongyang insists are an invasion rehearsal.
That stance stands in stark contrast to the style of the elder Kim, who used longer-range missile and nuclear tests sparingly as negotiating cards with the outside world to win concessions.
Yesterday, about 100 shells fired from land-based multiple rocket launch systems landed north of the Koreas’ maritime border. Those shells flew about 3 to 50km and Seoul did not return fire because no shells fell in its waters, according to South Korean defense and military officials.
The eastern sea border is clearly marked compared with the Koreas’ disputed western sea boundary, the scene of several bloody maritime skirmishes between the rivals in recent years.
The two exchanged artillery fire twice earlier this year near the western sea boundary.
North Korea routinely tests short-range projectiles, but the number of launches this year has been much higher than in previous years, according to South Korean officials and analysts.
The continued launches show North Korea’s leader is pushing to strengthen military capabilities because his country feels threatened by US-South Korean military drills even as it pushes for talks with the allies, said Lim Eul-chul, a North Korea expert at South Korea’s Kyungnam University.
The launches come as Pyongyang pressures Seoul to accept a proposed set of measures it says are meant to lower tension.
Kim Jong-un’s push for better ties with Seoul and Washington are seen by outside analysts as an attempt to help lure international aid and investment to revive the country’s moribund economy.
South Korea said earlier yesterday that North Korea has agreed to hold talks at a border village on Thursday to discuss the North’s participation in the Asian Games in the South later this year.
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