North Korea has fired what appears to be a submarine-launched ballistic missile, South Korea’s military has said.
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The THAAD project, a costly system created to intercept missiles in their terminal phase of flight, has generated strong protests from both North Korea, who considers it as a direct threat to its security, and China as well as Russian Federation. But given that the Musudan IRBM has an estimated range of more than 3000 km, and is thus more of a threat to the USA naval base in Guam than to South Korea, it is likely that this sudden announcement of THAAD deployment was led by the US.
The U.S. Strategic Command said that the missile was tracked Saturday over the sea between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, where it apparently fell.
The official North Korean news agency published a statement issued by the military’s artillery bureau.
South Korea warned on Monday that Pyongyang needed to recognise its part in “threatening the safety and peace of the Korean Peninsula”.
US and South Korean officials say THAAD only targets North Korea, but China and Russian Federation suspect it could also help USA radars to detect missiles from their countries.
North Korea is already sanctioned because of its nuclear weapons programme, but it was the first time that Mr Kim was personally sanctioned – a move Pyongyang said was tantamount to a war declaration.
In 2011, North Korea used the NY channel to appeal for food aid and in 2012 to warn Washington about a planned satellite launch.
North Korea said on Monday it has told the United States it will sever the only channel of communication between them, at the United Nations in NY, after Washington blacklisted leader Kim Jong Un last week for human rights abuses.
“Though likely just rhetoric, it is an example of North Korea trying to remind its adversaries of the varied means at its disposal to conduct military actions against the South”, said Grisafi.
North Korea’s military has threatened to take what its called ” a physical response” to a move by the US and South Korea to deploy an advanced missile defence system.
“The DPRK government informed the U.S. government of its principled stand that from now on it would deal with all the issues arising in the DPRK-U.S. relations under the wartime law of the DPRK and the issue of detained Americans is no exception”, the article said.
The United States, with 28,500 troops in South Korea, has long touted the system as a way to prevent North Korean missile strikes, as The Christian Science Monitor reported Friday.
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The two allies have not yet revealed exactly when and where the system, which fires projectiles to smash into enemy missiles, would be deployed but said they were in the final stage of selecting a potential venue.
