North Korea fires ballistic missiles after denying Russia arms transfers
North Korea fired multiple suspected short-range ballistic missiles hours after leader Kim Jong-un’s powerful sister denied widespread allegations about Russia.
North Korea fired multiple suspected short-range ballistic missiles hours after leader Kim Jong-un’s powerful sister denied widespread allegations about Russia.
The North has appeared especially sensitive to air drills in the past, with experts noting its air force is the weakest link in its military.
“It appears that this is a counter-military demonstration in response to recent South Korea-US air exercises,” Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, told AFP.
“It also appears to contain a warning message regarding the large-scale South Korea-US joint exercises scheduled for August,” Yang said.
Inter-Korean relations are at one of their lowest points in years, with Pyongyang declaring South Korea its “principal enemy”.
It has jettisoned agencies dedicated to reunification and threatened war over “even 0.001 mm” of territorial infringement.
The Friday launches are the latest since the North fired a volley of what Seoul said were short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast on April 22.
North Korea is barred by rafts of United Nations sanctions from any tests using ballistic technology, but its key ally Russia used its UN Security Council veto in March to effectively end UN monitoring of violations, for which Pyongyang has specifically thanked Moscow.
Kim Jong-un inspected a new tactical missile weapons system on Tuesday and called for an “epochal change” in war preparations by achieving arsenal production targets.
Seoul and Washington have accused North Korea of sending arms to Russia, which would violate rafts of UN sanctions on both countries, with experts saying the recent spate of testing may be of weapons destined for use on battlefields in Ukraine.
‘Likely a hypersonic missile’
The unusual wording of the South Korean military’s statement implies the Friday test was “likely a hypersonic missile”, said Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul.
“Hypersonic missiles are not yet stabilised weapons in North Korea,” he told AFP, adding this tallied with the launch site in coastal Wonsan.
Despite the short flight trajectory, the launch could have been of “mid-range or longer-class missiles that were fired with an adjusted range for experimental purposes”, Hong said.
Despite the short flight trajectory, the launch could have been of ‘mid-range or longer-class missiles that were fired with an adjusted range for experimental purposes’.
“There is practically no weapon other than a hypersonic missile that can be described as both ballistic and a ‘flying object’,” he said.
