During his speech on 1is January, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un chose to underline the importance of the fight against food shortages, while continuing to strengthen its defense. On Wednesday January 5, North Korea fired a missile that the official KCNA news agency claimed was a hypersonic model, a revolutionary device that made such high-speed weapons potentially undetectable.
Fired from the northern province of Jagang, the missile would have “Accurately hit a target 700 kilometers from its starting point”, according to KCNA. Pyongyang had already announced in October a test missile that can fly at five times the speed of sound, dubbed “Hwasong-8”. “The repeated successes of hypersonic missiles are important because they contribute to the modernization of the strategic force”, specifies the North Korean agency.
The new fire came hours before the inauguration by South Korean President Moon Jae-in of the construction of a railway in eastern South Korea, the first step towards establishing a rail link between the two Koreas, with the objective of connecting to the Trans-Siberian railway. This project was one of the commitments made at the end of the unprecedented 2018 meeting between Mr. Moon and the leader of the North, Kim Jong-un, to relaunch the inter-Korean dialogue. “Peace on the Korean Peninsula does not happen by itself. Sometimes there are tensions ”, commented, Wednesday, Mr. Moon in reference to the missile, while calling not to give up the dialogue.
Strengthening inter-Korean relations remains a priority for the South Korean leader as he nears the end of his term in May. Despite the parenthesis of 2018-2019, punctuated by several meetings with Mr. Kim, his efforts have not led to real progress. His will to officially declare the end of the Korean War (1950-1953) – interrupted by a simple armistice – runs up against the intransigence of Pyongyang; North Korea agrees ” on the fact “, but requires that the “Hostile policy” the United States.
“Measured provocation”
For its part, Washington condemned the missile firing, while recalling its “Commitment to a diplomatic approach” vis-à-vis North Korea, called to “Engage in dialogue”. A speech repeated with each missile test – seven in 2021 – by a Biden administration which seems to have other priorities. Discussions between Americans and North Koreans have stalled since the failure of the Hanoi summit in 2019 between Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump.
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