Two short-range missiles have been launched from a train on Friday, while Washington has announced new financial sanctions against five North Korean citizens.
Le Monde with AFP
North Korea has launched two short-range missiles from a train on Friday, said Saturday, January 15, state media. These tests were organized to “verify and judge the mastery of the action procedures of the railway regiment,” said the official news agency KCNA of Pyongyang.
Friday’s launch “has demonstrated great maneuverability and high success rate,” says KCNA. Discussions were conducted “on the establishment of a firm missile operating system throughout the country,” adds the agency.
The shots took place at 2:41 pm and 2:00 pm, local time (6 hours 41 and 6 hours 52, Paris time) and the missiles have traveled a distance of 432 km to an altitude of 36 km towards east of the Korean Peninsula, clarified the Joint Chiefs of Staff of South Korea.
“Tracting attention”
This is the third trial of armament organized by Pyongyang since the beginning of the year, despite new American sanctions. The launch of Friday took place after the Washington Wednesday decision to impose new financial penalties against five North Korean nationals, following previous missile tests presented as hypersonic, a first on January 5th and then a second, supervised in Person by Leader Kim Jong-One, January 11th.
While Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that North Korea was probably trying to “attract attention” with this series of missile shots, Pyongyang accused the United States of “so” so intentional “the situation.
The dialogue between Pyongyang and Washington remains deadlocked after the failure in 2019 discussions between Kim Jong-one and the US President of the Donald Trump era.