The projectile was observed by South Korea and Japan, less than a week after the launch by Pyongyang of a hypersonic missile.
Le Monde with AFP.
North Korea launched a “presumed ballistic missile” to the sea, announced Tuesday, January 11 the South Korean army. The projectile was pulled towards the sea located east of the Korean Peninsula at 07:27, clarified the Joint Chiefs of Staff of South Korea in a statement. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida confirmed that “an object that could be a ballistic missile” was launched by North Korea.
The projectile was drawn at the time of a United Nations Security Council meeting on the trial last week of what Pyongyang presented as a hypersonic missile. A few hours earlier, six countries, including the United States and Japan, had exhorted North Korea to cease its “destabilizing actions”. France, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Albania joined the call “to refrain from any new destabilizing action (…) and to engage in constructive dialogue towards our common goal of full denuclearization “.
“It is deeply regrettable that North Korea continues to launch missiles,” said Kishida journalists. According to experts, Pyongyang could have made his shot coincide with the UN meeting. “The launch has political and military motivations,” explained to the France-Presse Shin Beom-Chul, researcher at the Korean Institute for National Strategy Research. “North Korea continues its testing to diversify its nuclear arsenal, but it has planned the day of the UN Security Council meeting to maximize its political impact,” he added.
Military reinforcement
Since the accession to the power of Kim Jong a ten years ago, Pyongyang has made rapid progress in military technology, at the price of international sanctions. Despite an even economic situation aggravated by the pandemic, Mr. Kim assured in December that he would continue to strengthen his military arsenal.