North Korea once again flaunted its military muscle this Thursday, with its longest intercontinental ballistic missile test to date. He thus once again defies international condemnation amid accusations of his close military collaboration with Russia. The North Korean supreme leader, Kim Jong-un, has justified the launch as an “appropriate military action” that fully fulfills the purpose of informing his rivals of his “will to counterattack,” according to the North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). ).
The firing of the rocket, which theoretically has the capacity to reach US territory, occurred a few hours after the defense ministers of the United States and South Korea, Lloyd Austin and Kim Yong-hyun, failed “with one voice” and in the “strongest” terms for the participation of North Korean troops in the Ukrainian war.
In statements published by KCNA, Kim accuses his adversaries of “intentionally aggravating the regional situation” and “posing a threat to the security” of North Korea. It was Kim himself who ordered the weapons test, after which the records of the nation’s strategic missile capacity have been updated, according to a spokesperson for the North Korean Ministry of Defense cited by the same agency.
The South Korean intelligence services had indicated the day before that Pyongyang has completed preparations to carry out a new nuclear test – it has not carried out atomic bomb tests since 2017 – and a launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile. Likewise, they warned that some of these tests could be carried out imminently, due to the proximity of the US presidential elections, scheduled for November 5.
As quoted by KCNA, Kim emphasized this Thursday that his country “will never change its position of strengthening its nuclear forces.” The speed with which the most secretive nation on the planet has confirmed the test is unusual, since it usually does so—and publicizes it—a day later.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff of South Korea detected around 07:10 (local time) the launch of a missile from inside North Korea in a northeasterly direction, towards Japanese waters. The type of shot, “with a parabolic trajectory and an almost vertical angle,” according to South Korean military commanders, allows reaching higher altitudes and traveling further than usual.
The missile that has flown the highest
For his part, Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani reported that the missile flew for about 86 minutes before falling outside Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone, specifically about 300 kilometers west of the island of Okushiri, in Hokkaido. The minister noted that the rocket covered a distance of one thousand kilometers in almost an hour and a half and reached a maximum altitude of 7,000 kilometers, according to the Kyodo news agency. “We consider that this ballistic missile is the one that has flown for the longest period of time, in addition to being the one that has flown the highest,” explained Nakatani, who also pointed out that it could be “a new type of projectile” from North Korea.
The launch comes hours after the 56th Security Consultative Meeting between the United States and South Korea was held in Washington. During the meeting, the two allies confirmed and criticized that Russia is training more than 10,000 North Korean soldiers on its territory, who will possibly soon enter combat in the Russian region of Kursk. “We strongly condemn with one voice that military cooperation between Russia and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea [nombre oficial de Corea del Norte] has expanded beyond the transfers of military supplies, to the point of becoming a real deployment of forces,” reads the joint statement.
The White House has warned that the conflict has entered a new phase, since this eventual incursion for the first time of North Korean soldiers into the ranks of the Russian side reinforces Moscow’s capabilities. Seoul, for its part, interprets the presence of North Korean troops on the front as a direct threat to its national security, since North Korea will gain combat experience in a modern war. And, probably, the Kremlin will reward him with technology transfer for the manufacture of tactical nuclear weapons, intercontinental ballistic missiles and military reconnaissance satellites. This Wednesday, a senior South Korean official, quoted by Reuters on condition of anonymity, announced that Seoul is considering sending a team of military observers to Ukraine to analyze this foreseeable deployment on the front line of battle.
While the relationship between Pyongyang and Moscow goes through a phase of idyll, the already tense ties with Seoul only deteriorate. At the beginning of the month, North Korea approved a reform of the Constitution that omits references to reunification with its neighbor. Following the change, the North Korean regime announced that it was preparing to “completely cut off connected roads and railways” and build “strong defense structures” on the border, under the pretext of permanently blocking “the main hostile and enemy state.” Although these lines have not been used for decades, destroying them, as it has done in recent weeks through detonations, sends the message that Pyongyang is not willing to negotiate with Seoul. The two Koreas remain virtually at war because the war conflict from 1950 to 1953 was settled with an armistice instead of a peace treaty.
This Thursday’s launch is the first of a long-range ballistic missile since December 18 of last year. However, North Korea has carried out several short-range ballistic projectile tests on this calendar, the last one on September 18. Then, the North Korean propaganda machine claimed that a new tactical projectile, capable of carrying a large warhead, had been successfully tested. In those days, Pyongyang also exhibited its nuclear potential with the first images of uranium enrichment facilities and Kim Jong-un’s call to “exponentially increase self-defense nuclear weapons.”
