Themacforums, February 20, 2018 – On Monday, North Korea Fires Two More Missiles into its Pacific Firing Range. North Korea launched two additional ballistic missiles off its east coast. Leader Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister stated that whether North Korea would use the Pacific as a “firing range” depended on how American forces behaved.
The launches came only two days after North Korea fired an ICBM into the ocean off the west coast of Japan, leading the United States to perform separate air exercises with Japan and South Korea on Sunday.
Two projectiles were fired from a multiple rocket launcher by North Korea, according to the country’s official media, with targets located 395 km (245 miles) and 337 km (209 miles) distant.
According to North Korea’s KCNA state news agency, the “600 mm multiple rocket launcher mobilized in the shooting… is a means of a tactical nuclear weapon” capable of “paralysing” an adversary airport.
Experts speculated that Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, may have been hinting at preparations to launch additional missiles, possibly in the direction of Guam, a U.S. territory.
The two missiles, which were fired on Monday at around 2200 GMT, reached maximum altitudes of around 100 km and 50 km, according to the Japanese defence ministry.
A U.N. Security Council emergency meeting over the testing has been requested, according to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. According to the Jiji news agency, the meeting is scheduled for 2000 GMT.
Nevertheless, given the recent vetoes by Russia and China during the Ukraine crisis and a Sino-U.S. dispute over a Chinese balloon in the American sky, the chances of a new round of U.N. penalties seem small.
The launches were denounced by South Korea’s military as a “grave provocation” that needed to end right away. According to the office of President Yoon Suk-year, a meeting of the National Security Council was conducted to assess the tests and talk about preventative actions.
In what it dubbed its swiftest-ever response to the North’s provocations, the foreign ministry of South Korea announced penalties on four people and five businesses connected to North Korea’s nuclear programmes.
The ministry claimed that during phone discussions with his American and Japanese counterparts, its nuclear envoy, they all agreed that North Korea’s provocations cannot be excused and that it will suffer the “consequences of self-indulgence.”
The United States Indo-Pacific Command emphasized the “destabilizing impact” of North Korea’s illegal weapons programmes, while Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for the United Nations, urged Pyongyang to stop provocations outlawed by Security Council resolutions and reopen the denuclearization dialogue.
RISING TENSIONS
After the joint air drills with its Asian partners over the weekend, North Korean leader Kim’s sister issued a warning against a greater presence of U.S. strategic military assets.
In a remark reported by KCNA, she said, “The frequency of using the Pacific as our fire range relies upon the action type of the U.S. forces.”
This week, the US and South Korea will conduct simulated nuclear tabletop exercises to enhance the performance of US nuclear assets. In addition, the US and South Korea will conduct their annual season Freedom Shield field training in March.
In response to the exercises, North Korea will take “unprecedentedly persistent, forceful counteractions,” according to the country’s foreign ministry last week.
According to Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, “tension on the peninsula is likely to reach its peak in the coming months as North Korea is accelerating its military actions with higher frequency, and her statement indicates that it would continue impromptu missile tests using the Pacific as its shooting range.”
Kim’s reference to the Pacific implied that the North will launch longer-range missiles more frequently, according to Hong Min, a senior expert at the Korea Institute for National Unification in the South.
After launching a record number of missiles, including ICBMs that can reach any location in the United States, last year, the North has conducted three known weapons tests this year.
Kim Yo Jong also criticised several South Korean specialists, calling them “horrible” and “dumb,” for questioning the accuracy of the ICBMs and asserting that the “sudden” test on Saturday required nine hours of planning.
According to her, the launch occurred “at the most acceptable time” given the weather and after U.S. and South Korean scout planes left the area.
Instead of disbelieving or being concerned about other people’s technology, she advised them to think carefully about steps they could take to protect themselves. We reaffirm that we still want to hold the worst maniacs accountable for their actions and that nothing has changed in that regard.
