SEOUL/ WASHINGTON: North Korea’s latest launch was a big, new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), state media reported on Friday (Mar 25), in a test leader Kim Jong Un said was designed to demonstrate the might of its nuclear force and deter any US military moves.
The Thursday launch was the first full ICBM test by nuclear-armed North Korea since 2017. Flight data indicated the missile flew higher and longer than any of North Korea’s previous tests before crashing into the sea west of Japan.
Called the Hwasong-17, the ICBM is the largest liquid-fuelled missile ever launched by any country from a road-mobile launcher, analysts said. Its range and size also suggest North Korea plans to tip it with multiple warheads that could hit several targets or with decoys to confuse defenders, according to analysts.
Kim ordered the test because of the “daily-escalating military tension in and around the Korean peninsula” and the “inevitability of the long-standing confrontation with the US imperialists accompanied by the danger of a nuclear war”, the KCNA state news agency reported.
“The strategic forces … are fully ready to thoroughly curb and contain any dangerous military attempts of the US imperialists,” Kim said while overseeing the launch, according to KCNA. North Korea’s return to testing weapons that are believed to be capable of striking the United States poses a direct challenge to President Joe Biden as he responds to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
It also raises the prospect of a new crisis following the election of a new, conservative South Korean administration that has pledged a more muscular military strategy towards North Korea. South Korea’s conservative president-elect, Yoon Suk-yeol, said North Korea had nothing to gain from provocation.
Meanwhile, The United States imposed new sanctions Thursday on entities and people in Russia and North Korea after Pyongyang’s latest ICBM missile test. The targeted persons and organizations are accused of “transferring sensitive items to North Korea’s missile program,” according to a State Department statement.
“These measures are part of our ongoing efforts to impede the DPRK’s ability to advance its missile program and they highlight the negative role Russia plays on the world stage as a proliferator to programs of concern,” the statement said, using the official acronym for North Korea. The new sanctions were quickly derided by Moscow’s ambassador in Washington Anatoly Antonov, who said: “serial sanctions will not achieve their goals.”