According to Seoul’s military, North Korea launched multiple cruise missiles into the seas off its west coast on Tuesday. This was just one of Pyongyang’s many weapons tests this year.
South Korea’s military “detected several unknown cruise missiles launched into the West Sea of North Korea around 07:00 (2200 GMT)”, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.
South Korean and US intelligence agencies “are conducting a detailed analysis,” the JCS said.
“Our military is cooperating closely with the US while strengthening surveillance and vigilance, and is closely monitoring North Korea’s activities,” it added.
The present UN sanctions on Pyongyang do not prohibit the testing of cruise missiles, in contrast to their ballistic equivalents.
Cruise missiles are more difficult to identify and intercept than more advanced ballistic missiles since they are often jet-propelled and travel at a lower height.
The two Koreas’ relationship has rapidly deteriorated in recent months as they have abandoned important agreements aimed at easing tension, increased border security, and started holding live-fire drills.
In the new year, Pyongyang has increased its testing of armaments, demonstrating its “underwater nuclear weapon system” and its hypersonic ballistic missile powered by solid fuel.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervised the test launch of a new strategic cruise missile from a submarine on Monday, according to official media.
Photos showed a missile soaring into the sky from the water, leaving a huge trail of white smoke, but it was not clear if it had been fired from a submarine.
In recent weeks, Kim has declared the South his country’s “principal enemy”, jettisoned agencies dedicated to reunification and outreach and threatened war over “even 0.001 mm” of territorial infringement.
He also said Pyongyang would not recognise the two countries’ de facto maritime border, the Northern Limit Line, and called for constitutional changes allowing the North to “occupy” Seoul in war, the Korean Central News Agency said.
‘Overwhelming response’
In Seoul, President Yoon Suk Yeol told his cabinet that should the nuclear-armed North carry out a provocation, South Korea would hit back with a response “multiple times stronger”, pointing to his military’s “overwhelming response capabilities”.
Pyongyang’s latest launch comes after South Korea conducted a 10-day special forces infiltration drill off the country’s east coast, “in light of serious security situations” with the North, which ended January 25.
At North Korea’s year-end policy meetings, Kim threatened a nuclear attack on the South and called for a build-up of his country’s military arsenal ahead of armed conflict he warned could “break out any time”.
Earlier this month, the North launched a solid-fuel hypersonic missile, just days after Pyongyang staged live-fire exercises near the country’s tense maritime border with South Korea, which prompted counter-exercises and evacuation orders for some border islands belonging to the South.
Kim also successfully put a spy satellite into orbit late last year, after receiving what Seoul said was Russian help, in exchange for arms transfers for Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
Via Firstpost World Latest News https://ift.tt/sHpC7tR
0 Comments: