North Korea fires two ballistic missiles and Seoul responds by launching another from a submarine

The tension on the Korean peninsula today rose another notch after North Korea It will launch two ballistic missiles as a test just three days after testing a new cruise missile and the South responding by firing another from a submarine.

North Korea launched his two projectiles from Yangdeok (70 kilometers east of the North Korean capital), in the province of South Pyongan, around 12.34 and 12.39 local time (03.34 and 03.39 GMT), as explained by the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).

The projectiles flew about 800 kilometers and reached a maximum altitude of about 60 kilometers before falling into the East Sea (name given to the Sea of ​​Japan in both Koreas), added the JCS, which continues to analyze the characteristics of the test and the projectiles used.

The last time the regime fired a ballistic missile was at the end of last March, when it tested what appeared to be a new version of its KN-23 projectile, capable of tracing trajectories that were very difficult to intercept.

The UN punishes ballistic missile launches by North Korea based on the resolutions passed in response to its development of weapons of mass destruction.

SEOUL RESPONDS WITH A PITCH

A few hours later and in an unusual gesture, Seoul announced that it had just launched a ballistic missile from a submarine (SLBM), a test conducted in the coastal county of Taean (about 100 kilometers southwest of Seoul), in apparent response to the North Korean test and witnessed by South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

The test was performed successfully from a Dosan Ahn Chang-ho class submarine, the latest submersible model for the South Korean Navy.

The presidential office only said in a statement that the projectile flew the expected distance and hit the marked target “accurately”.

During an intervention before the officers present during the test, Moon assured that it was not carried out in response to the North Korean test.

“In any case, our enhanced missile capabilities can be a sure deterrent to provocations from North Korea”, added.

This is not actually the first successful test that Seoul performs of a SLBM, as military sources leaked to the media that a first successful test took place two weeks ago.

This makes South Korea the eighth country with the capacity to launch SLBM., a list also made up of the US, Russia, China, India, the United Kingdom, France and North Korea.

The ability to fire SLBM greatly expands the range of South Korea’s ballistic arsenal and it makes it much more dangerous, since the mobile nature of submarines makes launches difficult to detect.

CLIMBING IN THE REGION

Today’s launches are preceded by last weekend’s North Korean test of a new type of long-range cruise missile and the aforementioned original test of a SLBM southern.

To this must be added the report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at the end of August warning that Pyongyang reactivated facilities this year to obtain nuclear fuel that can be used for bombs.

This arms escalation comes at a time when the denuclearization dialogue has remained stalled since the failed 2019 Hanoi summit, in which the US deemed North Korea’s disarmament offer insufficient and refused to lift sanctions.

Washington has insisted in recent months that it will meet with Pyongyang without preconditions “where and when” to try to reignite the talks, but at the moment it does not seem to have gotten a response from the regime. Kim Jong-un.

In turn, North Korea again broke telephone communications with the South in August after Seoul and Washington went ahead with their summer military exercises and has so far also rejected offers of dialogue and humanitarian assistance from the Moon government.

The missile tests today also coincided with the visit to Seoul of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who underlined precisely the importance of all the countries involved in the Korean peninsula reducing their military activities to “contribute to the peace and stability of the Korean peninsula.” .

Wang insisted on pointing out that “not only North Korea, but also other countries are carrying out military activities” in the region.