Pyongyang fires ballistic missile ahead of Yoon's inauguration

2024-05-29 18:29:29      点击：988

A photo released by the North Korean Central News Agency shows a new Hwasong-17 missile displayed in a military parade held to celebrate the 90th founding anniversary of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, April 25. EPA-Yonhap

Yoon's transition team denounces provocation

By Ko Dong-hwan

North Korea has fired a ballistic missile toward the East Sea, Wednesday, according to South Korea's military.

It was the Kim Jong-un regime's 14th missile launch this year and came six days before President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol's inauguration ceremony on May 10. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected the launch from the Sunan area in the North's capital, Pyongyang, at around 12:00 p.m. It flew 470 kilometers in distance and at an altitude of 780 kilometers.

The JCS said the South Korean military, shortly after detecting the missile launch, started tracking and monitoring related movements and maintained readiness positions for a possible follow-up missile launch by North Korea.

The JCS said its chairman, Won In-choul, and United States Forces Korea Commander Gen. Paul LaCamera met in an on-screen meeting shortly after the missile detection and confirmed that the two countries will remain locked in steadfast defense against North Korean missiles.

"The series of missile launches North Korea has conducted recently seriously threatens not just the Korean Peninsula but also the global community," the JCS said. "It clearly violates the U.N. Security Council's sanctions."

The South Korean National Security Council (NSC), following the missile launch, held an emergency meeting with National Security Director Suh Hoon, who later reported it to President Moon Jae-in. The NSC said that South Korea, with the new administration starting on May 10, will withstand any threat with the country's steadfast military capabilities and watertight alliance with Washington.

The Wednesday missile launch came after the North test-fired what it claimed to be a tactical guided weapon on April 16. It came less than a week before the inauguration of South Korean President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol, who said that there could be a need to conduct a preemptive strike against Pyongyang to protect South Korea from the North.

Lee Jong-sup, the national defense minister nominee, speaks during a confirmation hearing at the National Assembly, May 4. Joint Press Corps.

The missile firing also comes weeks before a scheduled Seoul-Washington summit between Yoon and the U.S. President Joe Biden later this month. In addition, it also took place on the same day the National Assembly held a confirmation hearing for South Korea's national defense minister nominee, Lee Jong-sup.

Yoon's transition committee strongly criticized the missile launch, saying the incoming government will deal sternly with any provocation.

"The transition team strongly condemns North Korea's provocation and again urges an immediate halt to actions creating tension and threatening international peace," the committee said in a statement, adding that it will deal with North Korea's belligerence by working with the international community based on cooperation with the U.S.

Observers have repeatedly raised concerns that the North could continue to carry out military provocations, such as another intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) or a nuclear test.

Wednesday's launch was the North's first military provocation after Kim hinted in front of a major military parade in Pyongyang on April 25 that his regime could start wielding his country's nuclear forces "beyond the single mission of war deterrent."

Cheong Seong-chang, the director of the Center for North Korean Studies at the Sejong Institute, said that the missile launch is similar to North Korea's previous test-launches of missiles for surveillance satellite development in February and March, but much more improved in terms of distance and altitude.

"With the latest missile launch, we can make presumptions about North Korea's technological advancement towards surveillance satellite development," Cheong told The Korea Times.

The U.N. Security Council won't be able to issue additional sanctions against Pyongyang, according to Cheong, because Russia, as long as their Ukraine invasion persists, will object to anti-Pyongyang sanctions.

"North Korea will take advantage of such situation and test as many missiles and nuclear weapons as possible, leading to a sheer increase in their technological weaponry development," Cheong said. "The North might also move strategic nuclear weapons closer to the inter-Korean border. It is very worrisome how much longer South Korea will persist with policies where they will use traditional weapons against North Korea's nuclear weapons."