It is highlighted by military sources from Japan and South Korea that North Korea held fresh rounds of ballistics tests on Wednesday, provoking tensions between the United States and its neighboring nations further. It also comes after North Korea shares a rare look at its secret uraniumization facility with scarce specifics as its leader talks of the need for nuclear arms race revamping.
Various reports cited by the South Korean joint chiefs of staff revealed that North Korea had launched several more short-range missiles from the area to the north of Pyongyang, the capital. The trajectories of the missiles were all about 400 kilometers in a northeastern direction. The joint chiefs said that while analysing the launches, they were in direct contacts with the US, Japan on the issues of the launches but did not in the first instance give any more enhancements of the flight paths.
The Japanese ministry of defence confirmed that at least two launches were detected but did not make any announcements about the kind of missile that was fired or the distances. The Japanese coast guard urged ships in the vicinity to be cautious of falling debris, as the areas where the missiles were likely to drop were reportedly in waters between the Korean peninsula and Japan. It was reported on NHK television that it was most likely the missiles fell outside the economic zone of Japan.
The South Korean joint chiefs of staff went on to state that the launches were clearly provocative and ‘seriously undermines peace and stability on the Korean Peninsular’. They pointed out that the navies of the South Korea and the United States remain deployed on the Gulf of Korea ridge monitoring North Korea’s activities while standing on a combined defense posture ‘to respond overwhelmingly to any provocation’.
North Korea has ‘not immediately confirmed the launches, which come at the back of last week’s ballistic tests’, wherein Kim assured that his airborne generals would have his nuclear forces ever combat ready against their enemies.
According to the analysts, Kim’s ultimate goal is to force the United States to admit North Korea is a nuclear state and then shift the balance of negotiations in Kim’s favor while extracting economic and security concessions. This aim is illustrated by the inability to provide any analytical insight week ago when revealing of the uranium enrichment facility accompanied Kim’s call to ramp up nuclear weapons stockpiles fast.
With North Korea advancing and diversifying the global positioning missiles with nuclear warheads directed at the US and South Korea, the allies are compelled to ramp up their joint military drills and modernize their nuclear deterrent strategies relying on American assets to mitigate the emerging threats.
Analysts expect North Korea to test its nuclear urges and long range missiles at least once before the November US Presidential elections in order to attempt to tilt the elections, and also to further gain bargaining power over the new American administration.
