North Korea confirmed on Sunday that it fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on Saturday as a warning to Washington and Seoul, saying the successful “surprise” drill demonstrates “its deadly nuclear counterattack capabilities.”
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered a surprise “launch drill” at 8:00 a.m. local time on Saturday. A Hwasong-15 missile was then fired from Pyongyang airport during the afternoon, according to the state agency KCNA. The first test of a Hwasong-15 was conducted by Pyongyang in 2017.
The South Korean military had claimed to have detected the launch of an ICBM on Saturday at 5:22 p.m. local time which Tokyo said flew for 66 minutes before falling in its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and which, according to its observations, would be able to hit the American continent.
North Korean officials have hailed the trial — the country’s first in seven weeks — which they say demonstrates “the ability [de combat] effective ICBM units, capable [d’effectuer] a mobile and powerful counterattack,” according to KCNA.
This launch is “clear proof” of the reliability of Pyongyang’s “powerful physical nuclear deterrent”.
This new missile launch was quickly denounced by the G7 countries, the European Union, South Korea, the United States and Japan.
He came as South Korea and the United States prepare to conduct a simulation exercise, to be held next week in Washington, to discuss what to do if the nuclear weapon by Pyongyang.
This angered Pyongyang, which on Friday threatened to react with “unprecedented” force to the upcoming US-South Korean maneuvers, seeing them as preparations for an armed conflict and the cause of a deterioration in the situation. security situation on the Korean peninsula.
A new stage?
According to Ankit Panda, a security expert based in the United States, Saturday’s test is of considerable importance because the shooting “was ordered the same day, so it is not a traditional ‘test’, but of an exercise”.
“We should expect to see more exercises like this,” he added.
Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said the Hwasong-15 launch shows that Pyongyang has “a system capable of launching even a liquid-fueled ICBM in less than half a -day without notice and prior planning”.
According to him, it appears that the security situation on the peninsula will deteriorate in the coming months “as South Korea and the United States must continue their joint training program and that North Korea […] adopt a firm response”.
Relations between Pyongyang and Seoul are already at their lowest level in years. In 2022, the North called its status as a nuclear power “irreversible” and Kim Jong Un called for an “exponential” growth in the production of armaments, including tactical nuclear weapons.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has, in response, sought to strengthen cooperation with the United States, his key ally in the field of security, pledging to increase joint military exercises and improve the offer Washington’s expanded deterrence, including through nuclear means.
On Sunday, Pyongyang’s spokeswoman and sister of its leader, Kim Yo Jong, said it was these measures taken by Seoul and Washington that “are putting the peninsula in danger at every moment” and deteriorating its “stability”, according to KCNA. .
“I warn that we will monitor every movement of the enemy and engage the corresponding, very powerful and overwhelming countermeasure against all such movements hostile towards us,” she added.