NK ROCKET DRAMA
Launches could be a warning to US
North Korea fired two short-range projectiles, likely from a “super-large” multiple rocket launcher, on Thursday, South Korea’s military said, adding to tensions three days after the North said its troops conducted artillery drills near its disputed sea boundary with South Korea.
The recent North Korean activities could indicate it wants to show what would happen if Washington fails to meet a year-end deadline set by its leader, Kim Jong-un, for the United States to offer a new proposal in their stalemated nuclear talks.
Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the projectiles were launched toward the North’s eastern waters from northeastern South Hamgyong province.
Maj. Gen. Jeon Dong Jin, a senior operations officer at the JCS, said they flew about 235 miles at a maximum altitude of 60 miles.
“Our military expresses its strong regret over [the launches] and urges [North Korea] to immediately stop acts that escalate military tensions,” Jeon said, adding the military was monitoring possible additional launches by North Korea.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe condemned the launches as a “serious challenge” to Japan and the international community, although the projectiles did not land in Japanese territorial waters.
He said his government would “do its utmost” to protect the lives and assets of the Japanese people.
The reported launches were the 13th major public weapons test by North Korea this year and the first since it conducted what it called a test-firing of a new “super-large” multiple rocket launcher late last month. South Korea’s military said that system was likely used in Thursday’s launches.
On Monday, Kim visited a frontline islet and ordered artillery troops there to practice firing near the sea boundary, the scene of several naval clashes between the Koreas in past years. South Korea protested the drills, saying they violated an agreement last year aimed at lowering military animosity.
Seoul’s Defense Ministry said the artillery firing occurred Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the North
Korean shelling of a South Korean border island that killed four South Koreans in 2010.
With nuclear diplomacy with the US largely deadlocked since talks broke down in February, North Korea has test-fired a series of newly developed weapons to pressure Washington. In October, it conducted its first underwater launch of a ballistic missile in three years.
Attention is now focused on whether North Korea will resume long-range missile and nuclear tests, which had been suspended since November 2017. President Trump has called the suspension of those tests a major achievement, but some experts say North Korea may restart them if the US fails to meet the deadline.
North Korea wants the US to lift sanctions before abandoning its advancing nuclear arsenal. But US officials have said the sanctions will remain in place until North Korea takes substantial steps toward denuclearization.