North Korea fired an intermediate-range missile toward a target 1,000 km away during a drill overseen by leader Kim Jong Un, state media KCNA reported Sunday. South Korea’s military said it detected the launch and assessed that the missile flew more than 700 km. The accounts gave different distances for its flight over the sea off North Korea’s eastern coast.
The State’s Deterrent
KCNA said North Korea launched the missile Saturday from the country’s east and that it struck a target in the sea off the east coast. The drill trained troops operating a hypersonic strategic weapon system and assessed its reliability, efficiency and mobility, the report said.
KCNA described the exercise as part of efforts to test the country’s war deterrent. According to the report, Kim Jong Un called for continued efforts to make North Korea’s enemies recognize the “reliability and fatality” of its strategic offensive weapons. He also reaffirmed that developing the country’s nuclear war deterrent remained essential for national security.
South Korea’s military said Saturday that it detected a North Korean ballistic missile launch. It assessed that the missile flew more than 700 km toward the sea off the eastern coast. KCNA’s Sunday report put the target 1,000 km away. The accounts therefore offered different measurements of the missile’s reach.
Tracking Claims
KCNA’s report added details about the launch that Kim Yo Jong, Kim Jong Un’s sister and a senior official in the ruling Workers’ Party, had disclosed Saturday. She said South Korea and Japan had failed to track the weapon’s flight.
Kim Yo Jong attributed that failure to a special “wave-like trajectory mode,” saying it exposed limits in the two countries’ tracking capabilities. The account didn’t include a response from South Korea or Japan to that claim.
The launch was the latest in a series of North Korean weapons tests this year. North Korea has carried out more than 10 missile tests this year, according to the report. KCNA presented Saturday’s drill as training for troops and an assessment of the weapon system, while Kim Jong Un’s comments tied weapons development to the country’s stated national-security needs.
Tensions on the Peninsula
The test came amid heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula after a landmine blast in the Demilitarized Zone last month seriously wounded South Korean soldiers. South Korea blamed North Korea for planting the mines and called for an apology.
Kim Yo Jong issued a statement Friday rejecting Seoul’s demand. She called South Korea’s accusation “groundless” and said North Korea hadn’t deliberately laid mines targeting South Korean troops. The missile drill and the dispute over the landmine blast were reported against this backdrop of heightened tensions, with the governments presenting opposing claims over the mine incident and South Korea’s military separately reporting its detection of the missile launch.