As stated by the Seoul army, the North Korea he shot several cruise missiles to the Yellow Sea: the latest in a series of tension-increasing moves by the nuclear-armed state.
In these first months of 2024, Pyongyang he accelerated weapons tests, including what he characterized as an “undersea nuclear weapons system” and a solid-powered hypersonic ballistic missile. “Our military detected several cruise missiles launched from North Korea towards the Yellow Sea around 7:00 am today,” he said. General Staff of South Korea in a statement. “The detailed specifications are being carefully analyzed by South Korean and US intelligence authorities,” she added.
Unlike their ballistic counterparts, the tests of cruise missiles are not prohibited from current UN sanctions against Pyongyang. These tend to be jet-powered and fly at a lower altitude than more sophisticated ballistic missiles, making them more difficult to detect and intercept.
The latest launch comes as South Korea is conducting a special forces infiltration exercise off its east coast, “in light of the serious security situation” with the North, which will last 10 days, according to the South Korea’s navy. South. “We will carry out our mission to infiltrate deep into the enemy’s territory and completely neutralize it under any circumstances,” the exercise commander said in a statement.
The deterioration of ties between the two Koreas
Last week, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un he declared that the South is his country’s “main enemy”, abandoned the agencies dedicated to reunification and rapprochement and threatened war for “even just 0.001 mm” of territorial violation.
Hours after Pyongyang launched its missiles, Seoul’s defense minister said North Korea would face the end of its regime if it went to war. “If Kim Jong Un’s regime makes the worst choice to start a war, you must become the invisible force protecting South Korea and … eliminate the enemy’s leadership in the shortest possible time and put an end to his regime,” he said Shin Won-sik. Shin made the remarks during his visit to an Air Force base that operates the South’s advanced stealth fighter jets.
In recent months there has been a clear deterioration of ties between the two Koreas, with both sides abandoning key agreements to reduce tension, stepping up border security and conducting live-fire exercises along the border. The North Korean leader also said Pyongyang would not recognize the two countries’ de facto maritime border, the Northern Demarcation Line, and called for constitutional changes that would allow the North to “occupy” Seoul in the event of war, Korean Central News said. Agency (KCNA).
In Seoul, the president Yoon Suk Yeol he told his cabinet that if the nuclear-armed North were to carry out a provocation, South Korea would respond with an “even stronger” response, pointing to the military’s “overwhelming response capabilities.”
During Pyongyang’s year-end political meetings, Kim threatened a nuclear attack against the South and called for increasing his country’s military arsenal in view of an armed conflict which, he warned, could “erupt at any moment”.
Earlier this month, the North launched a solid fuel hypersonic missilejust days after Pyongyang staged live-fire exercises near the tense maritime border with South Korea, prompting counter drills and orders to evacuate some border islands belonging to the South.
Kim also successfully put a spy satellite late last year, after receiving what Seoul said was Russian aid in exchange for arms transfers for Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
© Agence France-Presse