North Korea announced Friday the successful test of a new high-precision, tactical guided missile, as its army threatened a “devastating” retaliation against South Korea for carrying out live fire drills near their maritime border.
The launch of the “cutting-edge” missile was watched by North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, according to the North’s official KCNA news agency, which hailed the test as a “breakthrough” in national defence capability.
North Korea is not known to have a tactical guided missile, but analysis of a recent propaganda film suggested it may have acquired a variant of a Russian cruise missile, the KH-35.
KCNA did not specify the timing of the test, but it appeared to coincide with the firing on Thursday of what South Korea described as three short-range projectiles into the Sea of Japan (East Sea).
The Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the North’s ruling party, published pictures Friday of the new missile being tested with Kim in attendance.
Kim reportedly stressed the weapon’s importance in providing a credible “pre-emptive” strike capability.
South Korea’s defence ministry related the latest test to Pyongyang’s efforts to improve its large-calibre multiple rocket launching (MRL) systems.
“The MRL ranges have been extended and guidance capabilities added to the projectiles,” spokesman Kim Min-Seok said.
Washington said it was looking into the technical specifics to determine the threat level.
“Technically, obviously any launch of anything is problematic, is escalatory in nature, is threatening,” said US State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf.
On Thursday, the Korean People’s Army (KPA) released a statement on KCNA condemning recent South Korean live fire exercises near their disputed maritime border in the Yellow Sea.
– A ‘devastating strike’ –
The statement described the drills as a “reckless provocation” and warned that frontline KPA units had rounded off preparations for a “devastating strike” in retaliation.
“All they are waiting for is the order to be given by the Supreme Command,” it said.
The South’s defence ministry declined to confirm that any particular drills had taken place, but said routine exercises in the area of the maritime border were common.
Some analysts have suggested that North Korea might seek to raise tensions ahead of an expected visit to South Korea next week by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
But others said Friday’s announcement was simply aimed at talking up the North’s military capabilities as the international community seeks ways to curb Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme.
KCNA said the test was carried out at a time when “attempts to isolate and suffocate us and provocations to start a war of aggression by the US and its puppets are reaching a new height”.
Yun Duk-Min, a professor at the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security in Seoul, said the development of a tactical guided missile would be an “obvious military hazard” to South Korea and the US bases it hosts.
A precision weapon would also be a response to South Korea’s hyped development of an indigenous cruise missile that was displayed during a military parade in Seoul last October.
According to the South’s defence ministry, the Hyeonmu 3’s accuracy made it capable of striking the “office window” of the North’s command headquarters in Pyongyang.
Inter-Korean relations have been tense for some months following annual South Korea-US military exercises that Pyongyang regularly condemns as provocative rehearsals for invasion.
Before the new missile test, there had been hopes that the atmosphere was calming as the two sides held their first talks for six months on running their joint industrial zone in Kaesong.
Because the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a ceasefire rather than a peace treaty, the two Koreas remain technically at war.