North Korea leader Kim Jong Un said after supervising the test launch of an intermediate-range missile that the country now has the capability to attack USA interests in the Pacific, official media reported on Thursday.
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South Korean and United States military officials said that North Korea has launched what appeared to be two intermediate-range missiles called Musudan on Wednesday, June 22, 2016.
“We have the sure capability to attack in an overall and practical way the Americans in the Pacific operation theater”, the KCNA warned.
The launches appear to be a response to US and South Korean military drills completed in the spring, which North Korea claims is practice for an invasion.
Yonhap News Agency said the projectiles are the same as Musudan missiles that have an estimated range of 3,000 kilometres, although North Korea didn’t use such terminology in the statement.
The missiles were launched from mobile launchers and carried a range that can destroy all of Japan as well as the U.S. territory of Guam. The South Korean military, however, believes Pyongyang has yet to attain the rocket re-entry technology needed for a ballistic missile launch.
Soon after the launch South Korea’s major government offices strongly condemned North Korea, while the White House also criticized Pyongyang’s action as the “flagrant violation of their global obligations”. In March, the Security Council imposed harsh new sanctions on the country.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has also called North Korea’s two missile launches unforgivable.
“All expressed a strong concern as well as their opposition (to) these launches”, Alexis Lamek, Deputy U.N. Ambassador of France, which holds the Security Council presidency for June, told reporters.
It was not immediately known whether the second launch was considered a success or not, but nonetheless appeared to mark an improvement from Pyongyang’s four previous failed attempts in April and May.
“We have to see it as a success”, Lee Choon Geun, an analyst at South Korea’s state-funded Science and Technology Policy Institute, said of the second launch.
The ramp up in missile testing could be due to growing financial stresses in North Korea, as United Nations sanctions begin to create serious challenges for the country.
“We are not at all disappointed by the Chinese”, she said.
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“If reports that North Korea has obtained ex-Soviet R-27 missiles (or at least their engines) are true, the KN-08 would likely be able to deliver first-generation fission warheads to at least some CONUS [Continental US] targets”.
