The launch of the “unidentified projectile”, from the Sunan air base, was carried out from North Korea towards the Sea of Japan, a note from the South Korean Joint Staff Command reported, without giving details. However, the first indications would suggest the test of a long-range ballistic missile, probably a Hwasong 17 ICBM, which would follow by four days the artillery exercises carried out by Pyongyang, and from the launch, last week (failed, according to Seoul), of an alleged long-range missile system.
However, these are further signs of the Kim Jong-un regime’s willingness to initiate a permanent cycle of provocative acts. Today’s escalation follows the prolonged negotiation stalemate with the US on the nuclear dossier, accompanied, in January, by the threat to lift the moratorium, self-imposed a few years ago, on nuclear tests and on intercontinental range ballistic missiles (ICBM).
The condemnation of the South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, who during an emergency meeting of the National Security Council denounced the “serious threat” to his country, and how “the launch by North Korea represents a violation of its own moratorium on ICBM tests ”and of the“ resolutions of the UN Security Council ”. From Moon, reports the Yonhap news agency, arrangements have come to “explore all countermeasures” and also to work closely with the staff of president-elect Yoon Suk-yeol.
Threat for the US base in Guam
The Japanese Defense Ministry reported that an unidentified missile launched from North Korea would have fallen about 170 kilometers off the coast of Aomori prefecture, northwest of the archipelago. A distance that lies within Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). Sources in the ministry report on NHK public television that the bullet has reached an altitude of 6,000 km, and therefore could be an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). Today was North Korea’s 12th weapons launch this year, and the first, since 2017, of an intermediate-range missile potentially capable of reaching Guam, a major US military hub in the Pacific.
The new provocation of the North Korean regime comes close to an important date, that of April 15, which celebrates the 110th anniversary of the birth of the founder of the state, Kim Il Sung, grandfather of the current leader Kim Jong Un. Currently, the Japanese premier Fumio Kishida is in Brussels for the meeting of the G7 leaders, and subsequently with the countries that make up NATO, to face the crisis of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine triggered by Russia On the sidelines of the meetings, Kishida will meet the Secretary General of the alliance, Jens Stoltenberg. In response to the latest missile launch, the Tokyo government has called for the opening of a national security conference.