2023-07-13 10:32:14
Demonstrative joy on the part of Kim Jong-un: According to state media, North Korea’s ruler personally oversaw and celebrated the successful test of a new ICBM. In videos from the launch, Kim can be seen alongside his wife and advisers, applauding enthusiastically following yesterday’s detonation of the Hwasong-18 solid fuel rocket. The state news agency KCNA reported on Thursday that the Hwasong-18 had flown 1,001 kilometers.
The missile reached a height of 6,648 kilometers before falling into the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan. The Hwasong-18, a new type of solid ballistic missile, was reportedly fired only once by North Korea in April. According to experts, the flight duration of 70 minutes corresponds to that of some ICBMs previously launched by North Korea.
A KCNA report said the launch was a “huge explosion” that shook “the entire planet.” Accordingly, Kim announced “a series of stronger military offensives” until the US and South Korea changed their policy towards North Korea.
UN resolutions prohibit North Korea, which is largely isolated internationally, from launching ballistic missiles. Depending on the design, the rockets can be equipped with a nuclear warhead.
North Korea threatened to shoot down any US spy planes in its airspace on Monday. Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of ruler Kim Jong-un, said a US spy plane had entered North Korean airspace twice. With such flights, the US Air Force risks an “accident” such as the “crashes of strategic reconnaissance aircraft,” said a spokesman for the North Korean Defense Ministry, according to the state news agency KCNA.
Pyongyang also protested once morest the planned stationing of a US Navy nuclear submarine near the Korean Peninsula. This threatens to bring the situation closer to the “threshold of a nuclear conflict”.
South Korean military expert Choi Gi-il assumes that North Korea “will continue to test missiles similar to the Hwasong-18 until the end of August”. Although this is expensive, according to the expert, North Korea has already produced “enough missiles” that are ready for launch.
In August, South Korea and the US plan an annual joint military exercise known as the Ulchi Freedom Shield. North Korea has condemned the exercises as a “simulation of all-out war” once morest Pyongyang and sees them as rehearsals for an invasion.
Tensions on the Korean peninsula have recently intensified and diplomacy has come to a standstill. North Korea’s ruler Kim has repeatedly threatened a military escalation in the region and had announced that he would expand his own nuclear arsenal “exponentially”.
Washington and Seoul have therefore been warning for months that North Korea might carry out a nuclear weapons test in the near future. It would be the first such test since 2017.
The UN Security Council will meet on Thursday to discuss North Korea’s latest missile launch, said Britain, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the council. The session was requested by the US, Albania, France, Japan, Malta and the UK. Earlier, the United States and leaders in Seoul and Tokyo had condemned the launch.
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