Less than a week after Pyongyang tested a hypersonic missile, North Korea launched a “suspected ballistic missile” towards the sea, the South Korean military said on Tuesday.
The projectile was fired at the sea east of the Korean Peninsula at 7.27 a.m. (22.27 GMT, Monday), the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. The shooting was also reported by the Japanese Coast Guard, who spoke of an “object resembling a ballistic missile”.
“Destabilizing actions”
Hours before the shooting, six countries, including the United States and Japan, had urged North Korea to stop its “destabilizing actions” ahead of a closed meeting of the United Nations Security Council on the issue. testing last week of what Pyongyang touted as a hypersonic missile. France, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Albania have joined the call “to refrain from any further destabilizing action (…) and to engage in a constructive dialogue towards our common goal of complete denuclearization”. According to experts, Pyongyang may have intentionally coincided its shooting with the UN meeting. “The launch has political and military motives,” said Shin Beom-chul, a researcher at the Korea National Strategy Research Institute.
“North Korea is continuing its tests to diversify its nuclear arsenal, but it planned the firing on the day of the UN Security Council meeting to maximize its political impact,” he added. According to Park Won-gon, a professor at Ewha University for Women in Seoul, the frequency of testing indicates that Pyongyang may make launches ahead of the Beijing Olympics next month. North Korea was banned from participating in the Winter Olympics by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) after refusing to participate in the Tokyo Summer Games in 2021 due to a pandemic.
Refusal of talks
Since Kim Jong Un came to power ten years ago, North Korea has made rapid advances in military technology, at the cost of international sanctions. Despite an economic situation made even worse by the pandemic, Kim Jong Un assured in December that he would continue to strengthen his military arsenal. In 2021, North Korea, equipped with nuclear weapons, claimed to have successfully tested a new type of sea-to-surface ballistic missile (SLBM), a long-range cruise missile, a piece of weaponry launched from a train and what she described as a hypersonic warhead.
Tuesday’s essay comes as Pyongyang refused to respond to US calls for talks. The dialogue between Pyongyang and Washington remains at an impasse after the collapse of talks between Kim Jong Un and then US President Donald Trump in 2019. The government of Donald Trump’s successor, Joe Biden, has repeatedly displayed its willingness to meet North Korean envoys and aim for denuclearization. But Pyongyang rejected the offer, accusing the United States of pursuing “hostile” policies.