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SEOUL, Dec. 18 (AP) – North Korea on Sunday tested two ballistic missiles that could reach Japan, possibly in protest of Tokyo’s new security strategy to push for more offensive measures against North Korea and China.
Two days ago, North Korea claimed to have conducted a key test aimed at creating a more mobile and powerful intercontinental ballistic missile aimed at hitting the continental United States.
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The two missiles flew about 500 kilometers (310 miles) from the Tongchangri region in the northwest of the countries at a maximum altitude of 550 kilometers (340 miles) before landing in the waters between the Korean peninsula and Japan, according to the South Korean and Japanese governments .
The South Korean military described the two missiles as medium-range weapons launched at a steep angle, suggesting they could have traveled farther if launched on a standard trajectory. North Korea typically tests intermediate-range and long-range missiles at high angles to avoid neighbors, though it fired an intermediate-range missile over Japan in October, forcing Tokyo to issue an evacuation alert and stop trains.
In an emergency meeting, top South Korean security officials deplored North Korea’s continued provocations, which they said came despite “its citizens groaning in hunger and cold from severe food shortages”. South Korea will strengthen trilateral security cooperation with the United States and Japan, they said, according to South Korea’s presidential office.
Japanese Defense Minister Toshiro Ino criticized North Korea as a threat to the security of Japan, the region and the international community. The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said the launch highlighted the devastating impact of North Korea’s illicit weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs. The U.S. commitment to the defense of South Korea and Japan “remains steadfast,” it said.
Kwon Yong Soo, a former professor at the Korea National Defense University in South Korea, said North Korea may have tested the Pukguksong-2 missile, a solid-fuel land-based variant of the Pukguksong series of missiles that can be launched from a submarine. Flight details of the weapon tested on Sunday were similar to those of two known tests of Pukguksong-2 in 2017, Kwon said.
Kwon said that if Pukguksong-2 was launched in a normal orbit, it could fly about 1,200-2,000 kilometers (745-1,240 miles), which would be enough range to strike key Japanese installations, including U.S. military installations there. Some experts say the Polestar 2 is nuclear capable.
“North Korea has armed protests with land-based submarine-launched ballistic missiles that can be launched quickly in response” to Japan’s national security strategy, Kwon said.
Some observers say North Korea may have tested a newly developed medium-range missile that could still reach Japan.
Japan’s government on Friday adopted a national security strategy that would allow it to conduct pre-emptive strikes and double military spending to give itself more offensive footholds against threats from neighboring China and North Korea . It was a major break from the strict post-war doctrine of self-defense only. Japan’s strategy ranks China as the “biggest strategic challenge” to Japan’s efforts to ensure peace, security and stability — ahead of North Korea and Russia.
Japan’s Defense Ministry said on Sunday that a convoy of five Chinese warships, including an aircraft carrier, had been spotted the previous day off the island of Okishiro in southern Japan. Fighters and helicopters were conducting take-off and landing drills on the Chinese carrier, and Japan responded by scrambling fighter jets and destroyers, the ministry official said.
Sunday’s missile launch was North Korea’s first public weapons test since last month it launched its longest-range liquid-fuelled Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile, capable of reaching the entire continental United States. Earlier this year, North Korea tested a variety of other missiles at a record pace.
North Korea has defended its weapons test as a self-defense measure in response to expanded U.S.-South Korea military exercises, which it views as an invasion exercise. But some experts say North Korea could use its rival’s military training as an excuse to expand its arsenal and increase leverage in future negotiations with the United States to win sanctions relief and other concessions.
Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, said: “A year after an unprecedented North Korean missile test, the Kim regime is determined to show no weakness ahead of New Year’s political events in the face of mounting diplomatic pressure. .”
On Friday, North Korea said it had tested a “high-thrust solid-fuel engine” for a new strategic weapon the previous day, a development experts say could give it a more maneuverable, less-detectable ICBM arsenal that could Missiles reaching the continental United States.
Experts say North Korea could use the engine to build a solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile, one of a series of high-tech weapons systems that leader Kim Jong Un has vowed to build to counter what he calls U.S. hostility.
All of North Korea’s existing ICBMs use liquid propellant, which must be added to the weapon prior to launch. This makes it relatively easy for the outside world to spot their launch preparations via satellite. But the fuel for solid-propellant rockets is already inside, so it reduces launch preparation time, improves their maneuverability, and makes it harder for outsiders to see what happened before launch. North Korea already has a growing fleet of short-range solid-fuel ballistic missiles targeting key locations in South Korea, including U.S. bases there.
Kwon, a former professor, said North Korea could test a solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile designed to reach the West Coast of the United States as early as the first half of next year.
Some experts speculate that, given the number of years North Korea has spent on its nuclear program, it already has effective nuclear-tipped missiles that can hit the entire United States and its allies South Korea and Japan. But others say the country is years away from acquiring such weapons, noting that it has not publicly demonstrated that it has the technology to make warheads small enough to place on missiles or protect them from the harsh conditions of re-entry. (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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