Earlier today, North Korea appears to have launched an intermediate-range ballistic missile toward the East Sea, armed with a hypersonic warhead.
The regime broke its two-months-long silence, with the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump just around the corner.
Choi Min-jung has more.
North Korea launched an apparent hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile toward the East Sea on Monday.
According to South Korea’s military, the missile was fired from the Pyongyang area at around 12 PM, and flew around 1-thousand 1-hundred kilometers.
A Joint Chiefs of Staff official stated that the missile is thought to be similar to North Korea’s IRBMs equipped with hypersonic warheads, which were launched in January and April last year.
Hypersonic missiles are considered harder to intercept than conventional ballistic missiles due to their speed and ability to maneuver in midflight.
Theoretically, the missile is assessed to be capable of reaching U.S. military bases in Guam, which is approximately 3-thousand-400 kilometers from Pyongyang, if launched at its maximum range.
Monday’s launch marks the regime’s first missile launch of the year.
The launch also comes two weeks before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.
The last time Pyongyang fired missiles was in November,.. just ahead of the U.S. presidential election.
“Given the timing and range, and that it’s just 14 days before the inauguration of Trump’s second term, it appears that North Korea intended to assert dominance over the U.S.”
Experts also say the North’s provocation could be aimed at testing the South Korean military’s readiness, amid the country’s political turmoil caused by President Yoon Suk Yeol’s short-lived declaration of martial law on December third.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the military is closely monitoring the North’s developments under Seoul and Washington’s combined defense posture to prevent any miscalculation by the regime.
Noting that the latest launch occurred during U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Seoul, South Korea, the U.S., and Japan condemned Pyongyang’s launch as a clear violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions, and agreed to maintain close coordination to respond firmly to North Korea’s provocations.
Choi Min-jung, Arirang News.
Source : Arirang TV, https://www.arirang.com/news/view?id=279644
Arirang TV(public institution's name)'s public work is used according to KOGL