The back-to-back missile launches came after South Korea’s First Deputy National Security Adviser Kim Tae-hyo said a few days earlier that the North could fire an ICBM within this month….reports Asian Lite News
North Korea fired an unspecified ballistic missile toward the East Sea on Monday, the South Korean military said, just hours after it launched a short-range missile, amid speculation the latest one could be an intercontinental ballistic missile.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected the launch but did not give further details. North Korea fired a short-range missile from in or around Pyongyang at 10:38 p.m. Sunday, and it flew about 570 km before splashing into the East Sea, according to the JCS.
The back-to-back missile launches came after South Korea’s First Deputy National Security Adviser Kim Tae-hyo said a few days earlier that the North could fire an ICBM within this month.
The firings also came days after Seoul and Washington held the second session of the Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) and agreed to complete the establishment of guidelines on the planning and operation of a shared nuclear strategy by the middle of next year.
Just after Sunday’s launch, the North’s defence ministry lambasted the NCG meeting as “an open declaration on nuclear confrontation” and criticized the U.S.’ deployment of major military assets to the Korean Peninsula this year.
The North’s latest sabre-rattling also came amid heightened tensions after Pyongyang scrapped a 2018 inter-Korean military agreement designed to reduce tensions and prevent accidental clashes along the border last month.
Seoul had partially suspended the deal in protest of the North’s successful launch of its first military spy satellite on Nov. 21.
The North last fired a ballistic missile on Nov. 22, but the launch apparently failed, according to the JCS.
South Korea to coordinate bilateral, trilateral measures
Meanwhile, South Korea has said that it will work toward coordinating bilateral and trilateral measures involving the US and Japan if North Korea continues to engage in provocations, a senior Seoul security official said on Sunday.
Principal Deputy National Security Adviser Kim Tae-hyo made the remarks at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, after returning home following his attendance at the second meeting of the South Korea-US Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) in Washington last Friday.
Last week, Kim raised the possibility of North Korea launching an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in December. North Korea last test-fired a Hwasong-18 solid-fuel ICBM in July.
“If such provocations from North Korea continue, we will work toward coordinating necessary measures between South Korea and the US, actions the two countries can take individually and joint actions that South Korea, the US and Japan can collectively implement,” Kim told reporters after arriving at the airport.
Kim added that Washington also “recognises the possibility of North Korea conducting ballistic missile provocations, including ICBMs, by mid-December or at the latest early next year”.
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