North Korea announced Monday that it had successfully launched a solid-fuel intermediate-range ballistic missile, confirming information provided a day earlier by South Korea.
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This fire occurs a few days after artillery exercises with live ammunition and in a context of concerns about a hardening of Pyongyang’s position.
Sunday’s launch of this missile, which according to Pyongyang was equipped with a hypersonic warhead, was intended to “verify the gliding and maneuverability capabilities” as well as “the reliability of the new solid fuel engine”, explained the North Korean agency KCNA. , received in Seoul.
Previously, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff announced that they had “detected a ballistic missile, believed to be of intermediate range, launched from the Pyongyang area towards the East Sea at approximately 2.55pm” (00.55 ET). East), referring to an area also known as the Sea of Japan.
The Japanese coast guard had also reported an “object, potentially a ballistic missile, launched by North Korea”, citing information from the country’s Defense Ministry, asking ships to exercise caution.
The last missile launched by North Korea, on December 18, was a Hwasong-18 solid-fuel ICBM class missile, the most advanced it has, launched into the Sea of Japan.
According to KCNA, the latest test “has never compromised the security of any neighboring country and has nothing to do with the regional situation.”
However, this comes after North Korea carried out artillery drills with live ammunition in early January on its western coast, near South Korean islands where the civilian population has been called to take refuge.
On Wednesday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un described South Korea as the country’s “chief enemy.”
“The historical moment has finally come when we should call (South Korea) the state most hostile to (North Korea),” Kim assured, calling South Korea “the main enemy” of Pyongyang.
The comments mark a shift in tone in North Korean policy and suggest that Pyongyang will take a tougher stance in the future, analysts say.
Relations between the two Koreas are currently at their lowest point in decades.
In late December, Kim Jong Un ordered the acceleration of military preparations for a “war” that could “be launched at any time.” He denounced a “persistent and uncontrollable crisis situation”, which he said was triggered by Seoul and Washington with their joint military exercises in the region.
Pyongyang managed to put a spy satellite into orbit last year, after receiving, according to South Korea, Russian technological help in exchange for supplies of weapons for Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
Russia and North Korea, longtime allies, have shown a rapprochement since North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s trip to the Russian Far East in September 2023 to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin.
KCNA reported Sunday that North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui will visit Russia next week at the invitation of his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
Last year, North Korea also enshrined its status as a nuclear power in its constitution and launched several intercontinental ballistic missiles, in violation of United Nations resolutions.
For Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in South Korea, the latest missile launch is “more than just a test”, given the context in which it occurred.
“This comes immediately after the Kim regime stepped up its bellicose comments against South Korea and shortly before North Korea’s foreign minister visited Russia,” he said.
“Pyongyang’s show of force should worry not only Seoul, since its military cooperation with Moscow adds to the violence in Ukraine and because (the North Korean regime) may be more willing to challenge the United States and its allies at a time when The world’s attention is focused on the Middle East” due to the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic movement Hamas.
The United Nations Security Council has adopted numerous resolutions calling on North Korea to end its nuclear and ballistic missile programs since Pyongyang carried out its first nuclear test in 2006.
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