2024-02-14 05:17:57
Seoul | North Korea once again fired cruise missiles into the Sea of Japan on Wednesday, according to the South Korean military, amid increasingly aggressive rhetoric from leader Kim Jong Un.
“Our military detected several unknown cruise missiles in the waters northeast of Wonsan around 9 a.m. today (0000 GMT) and South Korean and U.S. intelligence services are conducting detailed analysis,” the state said. -South Korean Joint Major (JCS) in a statement.
The JCS added that it was “closely monitoring any additional signs or activity by North Korea.”
Since the start of the year, nuclear-armed North Korea has declared South Korea its “primary enemy,” closed agencies dedicated to reunification, and threatened to go to war for any violations. territorial.
Pyongyang has also increased testing of military equipment, including testing what it described as an “undersea nuclear weapons system” and a solid-fuel hypersonic ballistic missile.
On Monday, the North announced that it had tested a new multiple rocket launcher control system that it believes could significantly strengthen its defense capabilities.
North Korea’s military this year launched a series of cruise missiles, a type of weapon the North could supply to Russia for use in the Ukraine conflict, analysts say.
Pyongyang and Moscow have strengthened ties and in September, leader Kim Jong Un made a rare trip to Russia to meet President Vladimir Putin.
South Korea and the United States maintain that despite UN sanctions, the North is sending weapons to Russia, possibly in exchange for technical assistance with its spy satellite program.
Tests of cruise missiles, which fly in the atmosphere, do not fall under the sanctions imposed by the UN on North Korea, unlike ballistic missiles, whose trajectory is mainly in space.
He said it is possible that some of these weapons had quality problems, and the recent tests could be “steps to resolve the problem.”
“End” South Korea
The North Korean leader promised that Pyongyang would not hesitate to “end” South Korea in the event of an attack, the state agency reported Friday, at a time when relations between the two countries are at their lowest point. .
In January, North Korea fired about 200 artillery shells near two South Korean border islands, prompting a live-fire exercise by the South and evacuation orders for residents.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has promised a firm response if Pyongyang is attacked, calling on his military to “act first, report later” if provoked.
Yoon has strengthened defense cooperation with the United States and Japan since taking office in 2022, including through expanded joint exercises, to counter growing threats from Pyongyang.
With the U.S. presidential election scheduled for November, the North may step up its provocations to take advantage of political uncertainty in the United States, Cheong Seong-chang, a researcher at the Sejong Institute, wrote in a report.
North Korea could “carry out attacks on the (South Korean) islands of Baengnyeong, Daecheong and Socheong based on its confidence in the advancement of its nuclear and missile capabilities,” he said. These three islands in the Yellow Sea are very close to the North Korean coast.
Pyongyang has moved closer to Moscow in areas other than defense. A group of Russian tourists, the first known group of foreigners to visit North Korea since the border closures linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, arrived in the North on Friday for a four-day visit.
Last year, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who also visited Pyongyang, said that North Korea could be recommended as a tourist destination for Russians, for whom traveling to Europe and North America has become more complicated since the war in Ukraine.
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