NK fires two unknown projectiles
▶ Pyongyang-Washington nuclear talks remain stalled
North Korea fired two “unidentified projectiles” on Thursday – the Thanksgiving holiday in the US – Seoul said, as nuclear talks between Pyongyang and Washington remain deadlocked.
The projectiles were fired eastwards from South Hamgyong Province and came down in the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.
They added that the launch was carried out at 16:59 pm local time (08:59 GMT) – or the early hours on the east coast of the US, during one of the country’s biggest annual holidays.
It was also one day short of the two-year anniversary of North Korea’s first test of its Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile, which analysts say is capable of reaching the entire US mainland.
Pyongyang is banned from firing ballistic missiles under UN Security Council resolutions, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Thursday’s launch was the latest in a series of violations.
“North Korea’s repeated launches of ballistic missiles are a serious defiance to not only our country but also the international community,” he told reporters in Tokyo.
Thursday’s launch came after Pyongyang fired what it called a “super-large multiple rocket launcher” system last month, and the JCS said the latest devices were presumed to be of a similar type. They flew 380 kilometers and reached a maximum altitude of 97 kilometers, the JCS added.
Nuclear negotiations between the US and North Korea have been at a standstill since the Hanoi summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un broke up in February, and Pyongyang has since demanded Washington change its approach by the end of the year.
Last month Pyongyang also claimed to have tested a “new type” of submarine-launched ballistic missile – a potential strategic game changer.
Trump has played down the recent launches, repeatedly pointing to North Korea’s moratorium on nuclear tests and intercontinental ballistic missile launches as foreign policy successes for him.
Trump and Kim adopted a vaguely worded statement on the “complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula” at their first summit in Singapore in June 2018, but little progress has since been made.
North Korea is under multiple sets of international sanctions over its nuclear weapon and ballistic missile programs and lifting some of them was a key demand in Hanoi.
In June Trump and Kim agreed to restart working-level talks during a meeting at the Demilitarized Zone dividing the peninsula and the two sides met in Sweden in October, only for Pyongyang to walk away.
Earlier this month, Seoul and Washington said they would postpone planned joint military exercises to ease diplomacy with North Korea, an announcement Pyongyang dismissed.