N. Korea’s missile tests demo for Russia?

Kim Jong Un’s war rhetorics may be a smokescreen for missiles export to Russia.

North Korea fired multiple cruise missiles Friday, Seoul’s military said, continuing a fresh streak of weapons testing that analysts warned to be a demonstration for Russia before Moscow imports them for use against Ukraine.

On Friday, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the military had “detected at around 11 a.m. the firing of multiple unidentified cruise missiles” into the sea off the country’s west coast.

The military is “closely monitoring for signs of additional activity” by the North Korean army, it added.

Unlike their ballistic counterparts, the testing of cruise missiles is not banned under current United Nations sanctions on Pyongyang.

“North Korea could be using recent launches as a way to show Russians the capability of their missiles before sending them off to Moscow,” Han Kwon-hee of Korea Association of Defense Industry Studies, said.

“The need to do it could be especially acute given recent reports of North Korean shells going awry when used by Russian troops,” he added.

Washington and Seoul claim that Kim has shipped weapons to Moscow, despite rafts of UN sanctions banning any such moves.

Even as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ramps up the rhetorical threats against the South, the testing spree plus suspected Russian arms deals indicate “a dog that barks never bites,” he said.

“If he was really serious about a war, he wouldn’t have said it but kept it in the dark for a surprise attack. He also wouldn’t have sold arms to Russia if he were really into going to war with the South.”

The latest launch follows Kim’s inspection of warships at a naval shipyard as he looks to bolster his maritime forces as part of “war preparations,” state media said Friday.

So far this year, Kim has declared South Korea his country’s “principal enemy,” jettisoned agencies dedicated to reunification and outreach, and threatened war over “even 0.001 mm” of territorial infringement.

Pyongyang has also carried out ever more weapons tests, including multiple cruise missile launches, an “underwater nuclear weapon system” test, plus firing a solid-fuelled hypersonic ballistic missile.