(Seoul) North Korea on Wednesday fired a rocket presented as a “space launch vehicle”, according to the South Korean military, sowing confusion in Seoul where an evacuation order was issued by mistake, and triggering a brief missile alert in Japan.
Pyongyang fired “what it calls a space launch vehicle” south, the South Korean general staff said. The “projectile disappeared from radar before reaching its expected landing point”, the army later said, quoted by the South Korean news agency Yonhap, adding that it was trying to find out if the projectile had exploded in flight or had crashed somewhere.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for his part mentioned a “possible ballistic missile”.
South Korea has canceled an alert issued early Wednesday morning by the city of Seoul, which sounded sirens and sent a “critical emergency” message to all mobile phones asking residents to prepare to evacuate by calling put “children and the elderly first”.
“We inform you that the alert issued by the Seoul metropolitan authorities at 6:41 a.m. was incorrectly issued,” said the South Korean Interior Ministry.
According to the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff quoted by Yonhap, the projectile flew over the Yellow Sea without affecting the Seoul metropolitan area.
“Missile launch. Missile launch. North Korea appears to have launched a missile. Please take shelter inside buildings or underground,” said the alert tweeted by the Japanese Prime Minister’s Office for residents of the Okinawa archipelago (south), and broadcast by the national channel. NHK.
However, the government canceled this alert 30 minutes later, considering that all danger had been averted.
“It is expected that the missile mentioned earlier will not arrive in Japan. The call to evacuate is lifted,” he tweeted.
“North Korea launched what appears to be a ballistic missile […] No damage has been reported at this time. We are analyzing other information,” Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters upon arriving at his office in Tokyo.
North Korea announced on Tuesday that it would launch a spy satellite to “confront the dangerous military actions of the United States and its vassals”, Japan for its part believing that it would be a question of a disguised ballistic missile firing.
The Japanese Ministry of Defense had ordered the downing of any missile whose fall on its land or sea territory was confirmed, and had deployed SM-3 and Patriot PAC-3 type interceptor missiles for this purpose.
Pyongyang had said the launch would take place between May 31 and June 11.
Concealed missile test
Criticizing the recent maneuvers between Washington and Seoul, a senior North Korean official said on Tuesday that his country felt “the need to develop its means of reconnaissance and information as well as to improve various defensive and offensive weapons.
Tokyo and Seoul had strongly criticized the announcement of the launch, saying it would violate United Nations sanctions against North Korea, including banning it from using ballistic missiles.
“If North Korea does proceed with this launch, it will have to pay the price and bear the suffering it deserves”, had launched the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Analysts say sending a satellite into orbit may allow Pyongyang to conduct a covert intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test, as long-range missiles and space launchers rely on the same technology.
In 2012 and 2016, North Korea, for example, carried out tests of ballistic missiles by qualifying them as satellite launches. The two projectiles then flew over the Okinawa region.
Since an escalation of tensions in 2019 with its neighbor, North Korea has accelerated its military development, in particular by conducting prohibited tests, and has declared itself an “irreversible” military power through its leader, Kim Jong-un.
The latter also called for an “exponential” increase in North Korea’s military arsenal, including tactical nuclear weapons.