North Korea yesterday said that it had test-fired one of its newest and most powerful missiles to boost its nuclear deterrent, its first such test since being accused of sending soldiers to Russia.
Seoul had warned a day earlier that the nuclear-armed North was preparing to test-fire another intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) or even conduct a nuclear test ahead of US elections on Tuesday next week.
The launch came just hours after US and South Korean defense chiefs called on Pyongyang to withdraw its troops from Russia, warning that North Korean soldiers in Russian uniforms were being deployed for possible action against Ukraine.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“The initial judgement so far is that [Pyongyang] may have test-fired a new solid-propelled long-range ballistic missile,” Seoul’s military said, adding that the missile had flown about 1,000km after being fired on a lofted trajectory — meaning up, not out.
Developing advanced solid-fuel missiles — which are quicker to launch and harder to detect and destroy in advance — has long been a goal for North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
North Korea defended the sanctions-busting launch, calling it “an appropriate military action that fully meets the purpose of informing the rivals ... of our counteraction will,” the official Korean Central News Agency reported Kim as saying.
The test “updated the recent records of the strategic missile capability,” of North Korea, it said, with Kim vowing that his country “will never change its line of bolstering up its nuclear forces.”
Tokyo said that the “ICBM-class” missile had flown for longer than any other previously tested by the North, being airborne for about 86 minutes.
“We estimate that its flying altitude was the highest we have seen,” Japanese Minister of Defense Gen Nakatani told reporters.
Washington slammed the launch as “a flagrant violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions,” US National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said in a statement.
In Taipei, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement yesterday condemned North Korea’s firing of the ballistic missile.
It reiterated its serious concerns and strongly condemned North Korea’s “wanton actions,” which it said undermined regional peace and stability.
Taiwan would continue to work with like-minded countries to jointly safeguard freedom, openness, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region, it added.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it was “concerned about developments on the [Korean] peninsula,” and urged a “political resolution” to the issue.
Seoul, Washington and Tokyo — key regional security allies — would respond with joint military drills involving US strategic assets, Seoul said.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol also said the country would “designate new independent sanctions” on the North and work with partners and the UN to penalize Pyongyang’s “habitual violations of [UN] Security Council resolutions.”
North Korea’s missile launch “seems to have been carried out to divert attention from international criticism of its troop deployment,” said Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.
Seoul has long accused the North of sending weapons to help Moscow fight Kyiv, and alleged that Pyongyang has moved to deploy soldiers en mass in the wake of Kim’s signing of a mutual defense deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin in June.
The troop deployment poses a “significant security threat,” Seoul has said, with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Wednesday calling on the North to pull their troops out.
South Korea’s military had warned lawmakers the day before that preparations were “nearly complete for an ICBM-class long-range missile” and that a launch could be aimed at testing the North’s atmospheric re-entry technology.
Seoul has warned that Russia might be providing new technology or expertise to Pyongyang in return for weapons and troops to help them fight Ukraine.
It is possible “Russia actually provided new technology for re-entering the atmosphere,” said Ahn Chan-il, a defector-turned-researcher who runs the World Institute for North Korea Studies.
However, it is more likely that yesterday’s test was a bid to distract from the troop deployment and get “the world’s attention ahead of the US presidential election” Ahn added.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS