This test – if confirmed – represents a considerable technological breakthrough for Pyongyang. The UN Security Council must meet in camera this Wednesday.
Le Monde with AFP
North Korea affirmed Wednesday, October 20, have launched a ballistic missile since a submarine which, if the information was confirmed, would allow this country with nuclear weapon to have a capacity of second strike. . This test could be a considerable technological breakthrough when both Korea, always technically war, seem to be launched in a campaign and the dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang is stopped.
The official North Korean agency KCNA announced on Wednesday that Pyongyang had tested the day before a “new type” ballistic missile launched by a submarine. The Arm is equipped with “many advanced control technologies and guidance “, according to KCNA, which states that it has been drawn from the same submarine, the” 8.24 Yongung “, that the one used by the country during its first trial of strategic ballistic missile sea-ground (SLBM). five years ago.
Pyongyang has already made two underwater launches in 2016 and 2019, but the Pentagon and analysts believe they have been made from a submerged platform. The South Korean army had indicated Tuesday that the launched gear was a SLBM since SINPO, in the east of North Korea, towards the sea. The missile has traveled about 590 kilometers at a maximum altitude of About 60 kilometers, said a source at the France-Presse agency.
Emergency meeting at the UN
If the new missile has been drawn from a submarine in activity, it would mark a new step for the North Korean arsenal with the possibility of a deployment far beyond the Korean peninsula, and a Second capacity typing in case of attack on its military bases. The UN Security Council therefore plans to meet urgently in camera on Wednesday afternoon at the request of the United Kingdom and the United States, according to diplomats.
The White House stressed that the new launch was a threat that was only highlighting the “urgent” need for dialogue with Pyongyang, but also its “unshakable” commitment to help defend South Korea and Japan. North Korea is struck by a series of sanctions by the UN because it continues the development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles in contravention with its resolutions.
Kim Jong one had met three times the previous US president Donald Trump, but the talks are neutral since the Second Summit in 2019, for lack of agreement on the relief of international sanctions and the actions that Pyongyang was ready to concede in return. In 2017, Pyongyang had tested missiles likely to reach the entire United States territory and proceeded to its most powerful nuclear test to date.