SEOUL, Jan 18 (Asia Free Press): North Korea said Tuesday it had launched two tactical guided missiles, its fourth sanctions-busting test of the year as it seeks to bolster its conventional weaponry while rebuffing offers of talks from the United States.
Since leader Kim Jong Un avowed his commitment to military modernization at a key party speech last month, the nuclear-armed country has conducted a string of weapons tests, including hypersonic missiles.
Washington hit Pyongyang with fresh sanctions last week and North Korea responded by doubling down on testing, asserting its \u201clegitimate right\u201d to self-defence.
The most recent weapons test involved two \u201ctactical guided missiles\u201d that \u201cprecisely hit an island target in the East Sea of Korea,\u201d state news agency KCNA said Tuesday.
The launches \u201cconfirmed the accuracy, security, and efficiency of the operation of the weapon system under production,\u201d it added.
South Korea\u2019s military earlier said two suspected \u201cshort-range ballistic missiles\u201d were fired east from near Pyongyang Monday, flying 380 kilometres (about 240 miles) at an altitude of 42 km.
Japan also detected the test, with Defence Minister Nobuo Kishi warning the string of recent launches indicates North Korea \u201cis trying to improve its technology and operational capability\u201d.
The launches come at a delicate time in the region, with North Korea\u2019s sole major ally China set to host the Winter Olympics next month and South Korea gearing up for a presidential election in March.
Pyongyang is using the new US sanctions as an excuse to proceed with pre-planned conventional weapons tests, an analyst said, as the North seeks to narrow the gap with South Korea\u2019s well-equipped military.
\u201cIt lags far behind on that point in its rivalry with Seoul,\u201d said Cheong Seong-chang of the Center for North Korea Studies at the Sejong Institute. \u201cThough it is nuclear-armed, it is not in a position to use them unless it\u2019s attacked first and it can only use conventional weapons for possible military conflict along with the border areas.\u201d
For now, talks with the United States are \u201coff the table\u201d as Pyongyang won\u2019t respond until Seoul and Washington freeze joint drills \u2014 something Washington has said is not up for negotiation, he added.
The United States called on North Korea Monday to \u201ccease its unlawful and destabilizing activities\u201d.
The US special representative on North Korea, Sung Kim, \u201cexpressed concern\u201d about the missile launches and urged Pyongyang to return to dialogue \u201cwithout preconditions\u201d, the State Department said.
Even as it flexes its military muscles, the impoverished country, reeling economically from a self-imposed coronavirus blockade, quietly restarted cross-border trade with China this weekend.
A freight train from North Korea arrived at the Chinese border city of Dandong for the first time since early 2020 on Sunday.
\u201cFreight trains carrying goods between Dandong and the DPRK have resumed operation. This work will be conducted in accordance with pandemic prevention measures,\u201d Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a routine briefing Monday.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SEOUL, Jan 18 (Asia Free Press): North Korea said Tuesday it had launched two tactical guided missiles, its fourth sanctions-busting test of the year as it seeks to bolster its conventional weaponry while rebuffing offers of talks from the United States.Since leader Kim Jong Un avowed his commitment to military modernization at a key party […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":3482,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[396,2],"tags":[1883,1880,520,112,1881,113,1882,1879],"class_list":["post-3480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest","category-news","tag-dandong","tag-kcna","tag-kim-jong-un","tag-north-korea","tag-nuclear-armed-country","tag-pyongyang","tag-short-range-ballistic-missiles","tag-tactical-guided-missiles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3480"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}