NKorea tested new ballistic missile, flouting U.N. Ban

SEOUL, South Korea — The two projectiles North Korea launched off its east coast Thursday were a new type of short-range ballistic missile, the South Korean government said, acknowledging the North was expanding its ability to deliver nuclear warheads as President Donald Trump’s efforts to bring the country to the negotiating table remain stalled.

The assessment — the South’s first formal declaration that North Korea is testing a new missile — accused the North of violating United Nations resolutions that ban it from developing and testing ballistic missile technologies.

If validated, it also appears to undercut what Trump has repeatedly touted as his biggest diplomatic achievement in dealing with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un.

Trump has defended his relationship with the North Korean dictator by repeatedly claiming that the North has not conducted any serious missile tests since he began engaging Kim in diplomacy in early 2018.

The South Korean government appeared to suggest otherwise Thursday. “This act by North Korea does not help efforts to ease military tensions on the Korean Peninsula at all,” the office of President Moon Jae-in of South Korea said after a meeting of the National Security Council on Thursday.

Analysts in South Korea said the North appears to have been testing a new solid-fuel, short-range ballistic missile during weapons tests May 4, May 9 and Thursday. The missile flew 150 miles May 4 and 260 miles May 9.

After the North’s tests in May, South Korean and U.S. officials shied away from publicly identifying the projectiles as a new ballistic missile, an apparent attempt not to give the North the attention it seeks through short-range missile tests.

One of the two missiles launched Thursday traveled 428 miles, indicating the North was making quick progress on the new missile.

After studying the photos North Korea released from the tests in May, South Korean and U.S. analysts said the missile looked like a copy of Russia’s Iskander shortrange ballistic missile. An Iskander-like missile would be a potent new addition to the North’s growing fleet of ballistic missiles.

Solid-fuel and road-mobile missiles like the Iskander are easier to transport and hide, and they take less time to prepare for launching. The Iskander is capable of carrying nuclear warheads — the North is believed to have 30 to 60 — and can also be maneuvered during its ballistic trajectory.