SEOUL — North Korea fired two medium-range ballistic
missiles Sunday, Seoul’s military said, days after Pyongyang announced a
successful test of a solid-fuel motor for a new weapons system.
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Military tensions on the Korean peninsula have risen sharply
this year as Pyongyang has carried out an unprecedented blitz of weapons tests,
including the launch of its most advanced intercontinental ballistic missile
ever last month.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected
two medium-range ballistic missiles that had been fired from the Tongchang-ri
area in North Pyongan province.
The missiles were fired from 11:13am to 12:05pm into the
East Sea, it said, referring to the body of water also known as the Sea of
Japan.
They were fired on a “lofted” trajectory and flew around
500km, JCS said in a statement, adding South Korean and US intelligence were
analyzing the launch “in consideration of recent trends related to North
Korea’s missile development”.
Tongchang-ri is home to a major rocket launch site, where
the North tested a “high-thrust solid-fuel motor” on Thursday, with state media
describing it as an important test “for the development of another new-type
strategic weapon system”.
“Given that the missiles launched today are medium-range
ballistic missiles, it is assessed to be test-firings of a new ballistic
missile equipped with the solid-fuel engine tested on December 15,” said Cheong
Seong-chang, a researcher at the Sejong Institute.
The South’s military “strongly” condemned Sunday’s launch,
calling it a “serious provocation” and a “clear violation” of UN Security
Council resolutions.
“Our military will maintain a firm readiness posture based
on the ability to carry out an overwhelming response to any provocations by
North Korea,” it added.
Kim’s wishlist
Despite heavy international sanctions over its weapons
programs, Pyongyang has built up an arsenal of intercontinental ballistic
missiles (ICBMs).
All its known ICBMs are liquid-fuelled, however, and North
Korean leader Kim Jong-un has placed strategic priority on developing
solid-fuel engines for more advanced missiles.
Liquid-fuel rockets are notoriously difficult to operate and
take a long time to prepare for launch, making them slower and easier for the
enemy to spot and destroy.
The more mobile solid-fuel missiles have a much shorter prep
time, and are harder to detect before launch.
A wishlist Kim revealed last year included solid-fuel ICBMs
that could be launched from land or submarines.
The latest motor test was a step towards that goal, but it
is not clear how far North Korea has come in the development of such a missile,
analysts said.
Key party meeting
The isolated country’s policy direction for next year will
be laid out at a key party meeting later this month, and the official Korean
Central News Agency earlier reported Kim saying that 2023 would be a “historic
year”.
In past years, Kim had delivered a speech every January 1,
but he recently dropped the tradition in favor of making announcements at the
year-end plenary meeting.
In his most recent address to the meeting, which was
released to the public last New Year’s Day, Kim focused on domestic affairs.
Experts say while Kim refrained from directly addressing the
United States last year, he could change his tone this time around.
Kim said this year that he wants North Korea to have the
world’s most powerful nuclear force, and declared his country an “irreversible”
nuclear state.
The United States and South Korea have warned for months
that the North is preparing to conduct its seventh nuclear test.
North Korea is under multiple UN Security Council sanctions
over its nuclear and missile activity since 2006.
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