Should we take North Korea’s threats seriously? A customary show of force, Pyongyang carried out several cruise missile launches this Friday, the South Korean army said. These ballistic tests were carried out towards the Yellow Sea, a major strategic area in the region, with the two Koreas facing each other, under the gaze of Beijing.
« The military detected multiple unidentified cruise missiles around 11:00 a.m. (02:00 GMT) “, pulled towards the sea off the west coast of the peninsula, declared the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff, which said it was closely monitoring ” any new signs of additional activity » in North Korea.
More concretely, this is the third series of cruise missile launches by North Korea this week, amid escalating tensions between Seoul and Pyongyang. Last Tuesday, the latter carried out a test firing of what it presented as a strategic cruise missile.
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Tests outside international sanctions
Two days earlier, leader Kim Jong Un personally oversaw a test of what Pyongyang claimed were two new-generation cruise missiles launched from a submarine. In January, North Korea had already announced that it had tested a “ submarine nuclear weapons system » and a solid-fuel hypersonic ballistic missile, following a year 2023 marked by numerous weapons tests.
Why is the international community not upset by these ballistic tests? Tests of cruise missiles, which fly in the atmosphere, do not fall under UN sanctions on North Korea. And this unlike ballistic missiles, whose trajectory takes place essentially in space. Cruise missiles fly at a lower altitude than ballistic projectiles. As a result, they are more difficult to detect and intercept.
If North Korea’s actions remain, at this stage, limited to a well-defined area, it is clear that they involve actors well beyond the borders of the two Koreas. The US and Japanese navies held joint maneuvers in the Philippine Sea this week, with North Korea (also) testing Japan’s nerves with military trials.
Increased warrior rhetoric
Analysts say Pyongyang may be testing cruise missiles intended to be exported to Russia for use in the war once morest Ukraine. A theory supported by Seoul, with the support of Washington. Their intuition? Allow North Korea to obtain Russian technical assistance on its spy satellite program.
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This Friday, its leader, Kim Jong Un, also visited the Nampho shipyard, 65 km southwest of the capital. He called for a strengthening of the North Korean navy ” to reliably defend the country’s maritime sovereignty and intensify war preparations », KCNA, the official North Korean agency, said on Friday.
This warlike rhetoric is, obviously, far from being new, but it has tended to become more accentuated in recent weeks. The head of state recently designated South Korea as the “ main enemy “. Additionally, it disbanded government agencies dedicated to reunification and contacts with Seoul, while threatening to declare war if its neighbor encroached on its territory. even by 0.001 mm ».
In the air and underwater
Recently, the two enemy countries renounced agreements reached in 2018 to prevent armed incidents, strengthened their military presence on the border and carried out live artillery exercises near each other’s territory. For its part, Pyongyang regularly accuses South Korea and the United States of preparing an invasion of its territory.
During his visit to Nampho, Kim Jong Un received information regarding a “ new giant plan » decided by the Single Party regarding naval forces, according to KCNA, which provided no details on the content of the plan in question. A nuclear-powered submarine was on the list of strategic weapons desired by North Korea at a major one-party congress in 2021, along with a hypersonic warhead, spy satellites and intercontinental ballistic missiles at solid fuel.
In 2023, North Korea launched what it called its first ” tactical nuclear attack submarine “. The South Korean military said at the time that the submersible did not appear to be operational. At the same time, analysts had estimated that it was a modified version of a diesel-electric submarine, designed in the 1950s, thus casting doubt on its capabilities.
(With AFP)
