The missile was drawn on Saturday, a few hours after the United States warnings on the possibility of resumption of nuclear tests by Pyongyang.
Le Monde With AFP
North Korea shot, Saturday, May 7, a strategic ballistic sea-ground missile (MSBS), announced the South Korean army staff, a few hours after the states. United on the possibility of resumption of nuclear tests by Pyongyang.
“Our soldiers detected around 2:07 pm [7:07 am Paris] that a short -range ballistic missile to be an MSBS was fired off [the Port City of] Stepo”, at the ‘Is East of North Korea, said the South Korean army staff in a press release.
This shot has been the fifteenth Pyongyang force demonstration since the beginning of the year. Despite the severe international sanctions relating to its armament program, North Korea has greatly intensified its tests and rejected any call for the Dialogue of the United States. He notably pulled, at the end of March, an intercontinental missile. So many “provocations” denounced by Washington.
Since 2017, the Kim Jong-un regime had ceased the fire of intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear tests.
American initiative that has been a dead letter
The United States believes that North Korea could conduct “this month” its first nuclear test since 2017 (its seventh in total), said the US State Department on Friday. “This analysis is consistent with the recent public statements made by North Korea itself,” said a spokesperson for American diplomacy, Jalina Porter, assuring that the American government had shared it with its allies and went ” Continue close coordination with them “.
Satellite imagery recently showed signs of a new nuclear activity in a tunnel of the Punggye-Ri site. According to North Korea, this site was demolished in 2018 before a historic summit between Kim Jong-un and the American president of the time, Donald Trump, who had marked the beginning of a phase of dialogue which, since then, Long made. The current President of the United States, Joe Biden, said he was ready to reconnect to discuss a denuclearization of the reclusive country, but this initiative has remained a dead letter since his arrival at the White House, at the beginning of 2021 .
In addition, this new shot comes before the entry into office on Tuesday of the new South Korean president, the conservative Yoon Seok-Youl, favorable to the balance of power with the North.