North Korea followed up January’s record barrage of missile tests with the firing of a suspected mid-range ballistic rocket on Sunday, ramping up tensions as global attention is focused on Ukraine.
The projectile reached an apogee of about 375 miles and flew at a range of about 180 miles before splashing down in waters outside of Japan’s exclusive economic zone, Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi told reporters in Tokyo.
South Korea’s military said its northern neighbor fired what appeared to be a single ballistic missile at 7:52 a.m. from an area near Pyongyang’s main airport toward waters off its east coast. The missile’s flight path was unusual and could indicate a test of a medium-to-intermediate range ballistic missile flown on a lofted trajectory, according to weapons experts.
North Korea often times its provocations for political purposes. The latest launch comes less than two weeks before South Korea holds a presidential election and as the Biden administration is tied up with one of its greatest international challenges — the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The launch suggests North Korea may be headed into a cycle of constant weapons tests for the foreseeable future, said Rachel Minyoung Lee, a non-resident fellow with the 38 North Program at the Stimson Center, who worked as an analyst for the CIA’s Open Source Enterprise for almost two decades
“A confluence of these events — the Ukrainian situation, South Korea’s leadership transition period between now and the new president’s inauguration in May, and the shifting global dynamics involving the US, Russia, and China — make it extremely difficult to come up with and impose a coordinated response to North Korea, even if it were to resume intercontinental ballistic missile test-launches or nuclear tests,” Lee said.
“This lays the perfect ground for Pyongyang to test its new weapons and continue to make advancements in its nuclear and missile technology,” she said.
South Korea’s National Security Council met a few hours after the launch and expressed “stern regret” over the test. “North Korea’s ballistic missile launch at a time when the world is working hard to resolve the war in Ukraine is not desirable for the peace and security of the world, region and Korean Peninsula,” it said in a statement issued by the presidential office.
The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said it was aware of the missile test. “The United States condemns this launch and calls on the DPRK to refrain from further destabilizing acts,” it said in a statement, referring to North Korea by its formal initials.
North Korea typically doesn’t comment on its missile launches until the next day, when it lauds them in state media. In a post on its Foreign Ministry’s website, North Korea blamed U.S. “high-handedness” for the conflict in Ukraine, and accused Washington of ignoring the security concerns of Russia, its long-standing ally, Yonhap News Agency reported Saturday.
Kim Jong Un’s regime last fired a ballistic missile on Jan. 30, the culmination of its biggest monthly series of rocket tests since he took power a decade ago. The spate included its first launch of an intermediate-range rocket since 2017. Pyongyang then held off on missile tests while its neighbor and biggest benefactor, China, hosted the Olympic Games in Beijing.
That January launch effectively ended a halt to long-range missile tests put in place before Kim’s first summit in 2018 with Donald Trump, signaling the North Korean leader is preparing to test-fire for the first time in more than four years an intercontinental ballistic missile that could reach across the U.S., from Los Angeles to the White House.
Liu Xiaoming, the Chinese government’s special representative for Korean Peninsula affairs, spoke with his U.S. counterpart, Sung Kim, last week, China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement Sunday. Liu reiterated often-used lines from Beijing that the U.S. should pay attention to North Korea’s concerns and create the conditions for restarting dialogue.
China and Russia, which have veto power at the United Nations Security Council, have called for winding back some of the sanctions already imposed on Pyongyang and may not have much appetite to tighten economic penalties now in response to North Korea’s latest launch, which violates UN resolutions banning it from ballistic missile tests.
Kim has shown no interest in the Biden administration’s call for him to return to nuclear disarmament talks, which have stalled for about three years. So far the U.S. hasn’t budged on North Korea’s demands that it ease up on sanctions choking its economy.
In recent months Kim’s regime has tested missiles designed to hit South Korea and Japan, which host the bulk of U.S. troops in the region. These include hypersonic systems designed to use high speeds and maneuverability to evade U.S.-operated interceptors. The intermediate-range missile fired in January could hit Guam, where American troops are stationed.
(Updates with comments from U.S. military, Chinese official)
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
