“Our military detected an unidentified short-range ballistic missile that is presumed to be an SLBM fired by North Korea,” the joint chief of staff said. South Korea it’s a statement.
SLBM is the acronym for Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile.
The missile traveled about 590 kilometers at a maximum altitude of about 60 kilometers, indicated a source informed to AFP.
South Korea and USA they had indications that North Korea would be developing an SLBM after it recently launched underwater, although analysts believe it did so from a submerged platform rather than from a submarine.
The US Indo-Pacific Command demanded that Pyongyang “refrain from any other destabilizing action”, although it noted that the shooting “does not pose an immediate threat to US personnel or territory or those of our allies.”
The peninsula is experiencing a kind of arms race, since the South launched its first SLBM in September and presented its first supersonic cruise missile.
The missile was fired from the coastal town of Sinpo into the sea east of the peninsula, the South’s joint chief of staff said in a previous statement.
Sinpo is a large naval shipyard and satellite photographs have indicated the presence of submarines at the site.
Having an SLBM in its arsenal would allow the regime to deploy its weapons far from the Korean peninsula and provide it with the ability to replicate from a submarine in case its land bases are destroyed or attacked.
The South Korean presidency called a meeting of the National Security Council and said it “deeply regrets” the action, calling on Pyongyang to return to dialogue.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said that two missiles were launched and described the events as “very regrettable.”
The regime of Kim Jong-un “It is developing SLBM because it wants a more durable nuclear deterrent with which to blackmail its neighbors and the United States,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.
“The North Korean SLBM is probably far from being operationally deployed with a nuclear warhead but Kim cannot politically afford to be left behind in a nuclear arms race,” he added.
North Korea, which possesses nuclear weapons, has tested long-range cruise missiles, a train-launched weapon and what it called a hypersonic missile in recent weeks, generating international consternation.
It also held a rare weapons display that included a gigantic international ballistic missile, featured in a nighttime military parade last year.
Kim Jong-un, whose regime has pushed for rapid advancement in its military technology, blamed the United States last week for the tensions generated by the weapons tests, and denied having hostile intentions.
Your country faces international sanctions for its nuclear and ballistic weapons programs.
The latest launch coincided with a call from a US envoy to open talks with Pyongyang.
“We have no hostile intention towards the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) and we hope to meet them soon without conditions,” he told reporters.
But he clarified that the allies have “a responsibility to implement the resolutions of the UN Security Council,” in reference to international sanctions.
For his part, the South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, recently proposed to formally declare the end of the Korean War since the conflict ended in 1953 with an armistice, but not with a peace treaty.
According to Shin Beom-chul, from the Korea National Strategy Research Institute, Kim wants to strengthen his position in the event of a possible negotiation with the United States.
“Pyongyang wants to show that it can take the provocation further,” he told AFP.
Kim Jong-un met three times with the former US president Donald Trump, who claimed to have prevented a war but did not reach an agreement to end the North Korean nuclear program.
That process of talks has been stalled since a meeting in Vietnam collapsed over differences over the lifting of sanctions and what Pyongyang would offer in return.
The current president Joe Biden He promised to seek denuclearization through diplomacy.
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