France’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Nicolas Drivie, said that members of the United Nations Security Council held a closed-door emergency meeting to discuss North Korea’s latest ballistic missile test, which the member states regarded as a “major threat”.
Drivie said that the organization unanimously condemned the test, and North Korea said it used a “railway missile system” for the launch.
“Everyone is very concerned about this situation,” Drivier told several reporters after the 45-minute meeting.
He added, “This is a major threat to peace and security, and it clearly violates Security Council resolutions,” and pointed out that the missile “falls into Japan’s exclusive economic zone.”
Earlier, North Korea confirmed its testing on the same day that South Korea became the first non-nuclear country to test submarine-launched ballistic missiles.
The North Korean Central News Agency reported on Thursday that the missile launched by North Korea was to test a new “railway missile system” and to counterattack any forces threatening the country.
The KCNA stated that on Wednesday, the missiles flew 800 kilometers (497 miles) and then hit a target in the waters off North Korea’s east coast.
On Wednesday, South Korean and Japanese authorities stated that they detected North Korea’s launch of two ballistic missiles. A few days ago, North Korea tested a cruise missile, which analysts said may have nuclear capabilities.
The arms race between North Korea and South Korea has become increasingly fierce, and both sides have demonstrated more powerful missiles and other weapons.
London issued a statement in which the British Foreign Office condemned the test as an “obvious violation” of Security Council resolutions and a “threat to regional peace and security”, as the United States did.
The British statement said, “We urge North Korea to stop further provocations and resume dialogue with the United States.”
North Korea has been steadily developing its weapon system, which increases the risk of a deadlock in negotiations aimed at dismantling its nuclear and ballistic missile arsenal in exchange for the United States to lift sanctions.
Park Jung-cheon, the Marshal of North Korea and a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, said, “The railway missile system is an effective counterattack method that can strike a threatening force in many ways.” According to KCNA, Park Jung-cheon Responsible for supervising this experiment.
The KCNA reported that “(Park Zhengtian) stated that in accordance with the military modernization route and policy proposed by the Eighth Congress of our Party, the deployment of railway-carrying missile systems is of great significance to enhancing the country’s war deterrence.”
The report pointed out that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un did not supervise the test firing.
“Cheap and reliable”
The photo released by the official media showed an olive-green missile rising from the roof of a train parked on a mountain track, and a cloud of smoke and flames rose from the surrounding area.
South Korea reported that the missile was launched from the inland area of central Yangde.
Adam Mount, a senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists, said on Twitter: “For countries seeking to improve the survivability of nuclear forces, orbital mobile missiles are a relatively cheap and reliable option. Russia has done it. The United States has done so. Consideration. This is of great significance to North Korea.”
(Social networking site)Mount and other analysts said the system may be restricted by North Korea’s relatively limited and sometimes unreliable rail network, but it may add another layer of complexity to foreign forces seeking to track and destroy missiles before they are launched.
According to KCNA reports, Park Zhengtian stated that he plans to expand the railway missile regiment to a brigade-level scale in the near future and conduct training to gain “actual combat experience.”
Park Zhengtian said that the army should prepare a tactical plan to deploy the system in different areas of North Korea.
Anjit Panda, a senior researcher at the Carnegie Foundation for International Peace in the United States, pointed out that it is unusual for North Korea to exhibit diversity in missile launch systems and launch platforms.
He said on Twitter: “This is not very cost-effective (especially for countries with severely limited resources), and it is much more complicated to operate than a streamlined, vertically integrated force.”
Panda added that the railway system test demonstrated on Wednesday may lay the foundation for the development of a larger nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missile.
He also pointed out that some of the missile systems displayed by North Korea may be “technical demonstrations” and may not have been fully deployed.
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