With the world focused on Ukraine, Pyongyang has decided to flex its muscles. North Korea fired a ballistic missile on Sunday, the eighth this year, following a month of lull during the Beijing Olympics.
The South Korean army said it had “detected a ballistic missile launched in the direction of the East Sea” (the Sea of Japan). The projectile, launched at 7:52 a.m. from Sunan, near Pyongyang, traveled regarding 300 km at a maximum altitude of 620 km. The South Korean presidency expressed its “deep concern” over the launch, which comes “at a time when the world is striving to stop the war in Ukraine”.
Seven shots in January
In January, North Korea had fired seven, a record number in a month, including that of its most powerful missile since 2017, while negotiations with the United States are at a standstill. The regime has also warned that it may drop its self-imposed moratorium on intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and nuclear testing.
North Korea refrained from any weapons testing during the Olympics, perhaps out of respect for its neighbor and ally China. “They refrained from any provocation during the Beijing Games to spare their relations with China. But as US interest turned to Europe with the crisis in Ukraine and the Security Council proved unable to function, Pyongyang seized the opportunity,” says Shin Beom-chul, researcher at the Research Institute for Economy and Society.
Shooting to legitimize the regime
“North Korea was not going to please anyone by sitting still while the rest of the world deals with Russia’s aggression once morest Ukraine,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at the University. Ewha University in Seoul. As North Korea’s economy suffers from international sanctions and the draconian isolation the country has imposed on itself to protect itself from the pandemic, “the strength and legitimacy of the Kim regime now depend on ever better missile tests “, he adds.
This new show of force from Pyongyang comes as South Korea prepares to elect its next president on March 9. Analysts further believe that Pyongyang might use the most important date on its political calendar, April 15, to carry out a major weapons test. This date marks the anniversary (110 years this year) of the birth of Kim Il Sung, founder of North Korea and grandfather of current leader Kim Jong-un. But for Park Won-gon, professor of North Korean studies at Ewha University, “North Korea will have to be careful regarding an ICBM launch, because it is its last card to put pressure on the United States “.
