North Korea fires missile to test South, US

SEOUL: North Korea fired a ballistic missile yesterday in an apparent bid to test the South’s new liberal president and the US which have both signalled an interest in negotiations to ease months of tensions.

The missile flew more than 700km before landing in the Sea of Japan, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said. The US Pacific Command said it did not appear to be an intercontinental ballistic missile.

New South Korean President Moon JaeIn, who was inaugurated on Wednesday, slammed the test as a “reckless provocation” after holding an emergency meeting with national security advisors.

He said the government strongly condemned this “grave challenge to the peace and security of the Korean peninsula and the international community”, his spokesman Yoon Young-Chan said.

“The North is apparently trying to test Moon and see how his North Korea policy as well as policy coordination between the South and the US will take shape,” said Yang Moo-Jin, professor at the University of North Korea Studies in Seoul.

The launch was also aimed at “maximising the North’s political leverage” ahead of possible negotiations with the US, as Pyongyang and Washington both recently signalled they were open to talks, he added.

“The North wants to show before negotiations that their precious, powerful weapon is not something they would give up so easily,” Yang said.

The North has staged two atomic tests and dozens of missile launches since the start of last year in its quest to develop a missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to the US mainland.

Most experts have doubted that the North has developed an intercontinental ballistic missile with that range.

But many say the isolated nation has made a great progress in its nuclear and missile capabilities since Kim Jong-Un took power after the death of his father and longtime ruler, Kim Jong-Il, in 2011.

Yang said yesterday’s launch showed “fast progress” in Pyongyang’s missile capability.

The missile was fired from a site near the northwestern city of Kusong.

A previous test at the same site in February sent a missile 500km, far less than yesterday’s launch. – AFP