Seoul fears another missile launch
NORTH Korea could be preparing another missile launch, Seoul said yesterday as it strengthened its defences following Pyongyang’s biggest-ever nuclear test and declaration it had a hydrogen bomb.
The South and the US will deploy more of the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defence (Thaad) missile launchers that have infuriated Beijing, the defence ministry said.
The announcement came after Seoul fired an early-morning volley of ballistic missiles in an exercise simulating an attack on the North’s nuclear test site.
Pictures showed South Korean short-range Hyunmoo missiles roaring into the sky in the pale light of dawn from a launch site on the east coast.
Pyongyang said the device it detonated on Sunday was a hydrogen bomb – far more powerful than the fission-based devices it is believed to have previously tested – and small enough to fit into a missile.
The blast threw down a new gauntlet to US President Donald Trump, after the North last month twice tested an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that appeared to bring much of the US mainland into range, and threatened to send a salvo of missiles towards the US island territory of Guam.
South Korean defence ministry officials estimated its strength at 50 kilotons – five times the size of the North’s previous nuclear test.
The South had requested the US deploy strategic assets such as aircraft carriers and bombers to the peninsula, Defence Minister Song Young-Moo said, but denied reports Seoul was seeking the return of US tactical nuclear weapons.
After Sunday’s test, the US warned it could launch a “massive military response” to threats from North Korea that would be “both effective and overwhelming”.
The nuclear test prompted an international chorus of condemnation with the UN Security Council holding an emergency meeting yesterday. — AFP