(Seoul) North Korea fired a “suspected intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)” on Wednesday, the South Korean army said, hours after the departure from the region of US President Joe Biden, who came to Asia in particular to reaffirm its support for Seoul and Tokyo in the face of the nuclear threat from Pyongyang.
Updated yesterday at 7:33 p.m.
Seoul said at least three missiles were fired from Sunan in the Pyongyang suburb toward the Sea of Japan at 6 a.m. (2100 GMT), 6:37 a.m. and 6:42 a.m.
“The first ballistic missile (the alleged ICBM) has a range of about 360 km and an altitude of about 540 km,” the South Korean general staff said in a statement.
The second ballistic missile “disappeared at an altitude of 20 km” and the third projectile – a suspected short-range ballistic missile – traveled about 760 km at an altitude of about 60 km.
Japan’s Defense Ministry said one of the ballistic missiles followed “an irregular trajectory”.
Pyongyang is pursuing technology that would allow missiles to be maneuvered after launch, including “hypersonic hover technology”, which would make it more difficult for missile defense systems to intercept.
“North Korea’s successive launch of a suspected intercontinental ballistic missile and short-range ballistic missiles today is an illegal act in direct violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions,” the Seoul government said. following a meeting of the National Security Council.
The South Korean military also said that South Korea and the United States carried out a “surface-to-surface missile firing exercise” and mobilized fighter jets in response to “alleged provocations by North Korea regarding ICBMs and missiles.
“The United States condemns the DPRK’s multiple ballistic missile launches,” a US State Department spokesman responded late Tuesday, using the official name of North Korea.
“We call on the DPRK to refrain from further provocations and engage in constructive substantive dialogue,” he added.
” Provocation ”
The North Korean regime, under United Nations sanctions over its weapons programs, has ramped up missile testing in recent months, blaming the “hostile” attitude of the United States.
He tested an intercontinental ballistic missile in March for the first time since 2017. And South Korean and American intelligence services suspect him of planning an imminent nuclear test, which would also be his first in five years.
The US government had said in recent days to expect a “provocation” from Pyongyang during or just after the stay of Joe Biden, who completed a tour of South Korea and Japan on Tuesday evening.
During his stay in Seoul, the American president and his new South Korean counterpart Yoon Suk-yeol, according to the latter, mentioned an intensification of their joint military exercises, as well as the deployment in the peninsula of fighter planes or missiles, “to prepare for a nuclear attack”.
An increase in American-South Korean maneuvers risks angering Pyongyang, which considers these exercises as dress rehearsals for the invasion. These maneuvers have been reduced in recent years due to the pandemic, and to allow the predecessors of MM. Biden and Yoon, Donald Trump and Moon Jae-in, to attempt a rapprochement with North Korea.
” Hello. Period ”
Shortly before leaving South Korea on Sunday for Japan, Joe Biden had sent a singular message to Kim Jong-un.
Asked by a journalist who asked him if he had a message for the North Korean leader, the president replied tersely: “Hello. Period “.
A way of making it known that Washington remains open to dialogue with North Korea, even in the absence of reciprocity.
Talks with Pyongyang have stalled since a failed summit in 2019 between Mr Kim and then-US President Donald Trump. The North Korean regime ignored all offers of dialogue made by Washington.
During his trip to South Korea, Mr. Biden also indicated that Washington had offered to provide vaccines against COVID-19 to North Korea, but had “not received a response”.
Since the beginning of May, more than three million people have been affected by “fever”, according to the term used by the official media, and 68 have died from it in North Korea, according to the latest official report published on Wednesday.
The country, whose 25 million inhabitants are not vaccinated, has completely cut itself off from the world since the start of the pandemic to protect itself against the virus, but the outbreak of contamination with the Omicron variant in neighboring countries has ended up defeat this strategy.
The way in which this health crisis will influence the military decisions of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is the great unknown that the Americans, South Koreans and Japanese are trying to clarify.
On May 12, North Korea conducted a ballistic missile test the same day leader Kim first declared an “emergency” over the COVID-19 outbreak.