Television at a train station in Seoul showing the launch of a North Korean missile, March 16, 2023. ANTHONY WALLACE / AFP
Pyongyang launched an ICBM towards the Sea of Japan on Thursday (March 16), Seoul said, hours before South Korean President Yoon Seok-youl’s arrival in Tokyo.
“Our army has detected a long-range ballistic missile fired from the Sunan area of Pyongyang,” the joint staff of Agence France-Presse (AFP) said, adding that it was an ICBM.
At a National Security Council meeting, Yoon called for greater trilateral cooperation with Japan and the United States, adding that “North Korea will pay a fair price for these reckless provocations,” his office said in a statement.
Tokyo said the rocket reached a maximum altitude of more than 6,000 kilometers. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced to the press that he would meet with the ministers of the National Security Council. “Peace and stability in the region are very important issues for the countries concerned,” Kishida said.
First summit in twelve years
The launch came hours before the leaders of South Korea and Japan meet in Tokyo, with Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic programs expected to be the focus of their talks. This summit is the first in 12 years between the two neighboring powers as they attempt to mend relations long marred by the atrocities committed by Japan during its thirty-five years of colonial rule over Korea (1910-1945).
The two countries are currently increasing defense spending and regularly holding joint military exercises, which Yoon said are essential for regional and global stability. “South Korea and Japan are increasingly dependent on cooperation during this time [crises multiples] where North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic threats are increasing,” South Korean President Yoon Seok-youl said in an interview with multiple media outlets including AFP on Wednesday.
It is Pyongyang’s third show of force since Sunday, when South Korea and the United States held their largest joint military exercises in five years this week.
“Justify his hostile activities”
North Korea has timed the start to the day of the summit to have a “double effect” of warning its neighbors and protesting the joint exercises between the United States and South Korea, experts say. In early March, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordered his army to step up military maneuvers for a “real war.”
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“For a North Korea that is constantly looking for excuses to justify its hostile activities and weapons development, now is the perfect time for Kim to deploy its missiles,” said Soo Kim, a former CIA analyst in Korea who is now on management works consulting firm LMI.
Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Seoul’s Ewha University, said Kim Jong-un’s essay was intended to “threaten Tokyo,” which aims to “deepen trilateral cooperation with Washington and Seoul,” and . on the other hand, “prevent South Korea from conducting further defense exercises with the United States”. Washington and Seoul have stepped up defense cooperation in the face of growing military and nuclear threats from Pyongyang, which has ramped up weapons testing in recent months.
“Rehearse”
North Korea launched two short-range ballistic missiles on Tuesday and two strategic cruise missiles on Sunday from a submarine, hours before the start of US-South Korea exercises. These drills, dubbed “Freedom Shield,” began Monday and are expected to last 10 days. They are focused on “the changing security environment” due to North Korea’s redoubled aggressiveness, the allies said.
North Korea, which sees these exercises as rehearsals for an invasion, regularly promises “overwhelming” measures in response. Thursday’s test “could be a rehearsal of a normal-angle ICBM launch or a review of the North’s preparations for launching a reconnaissance satellite,” Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the university, told AFP Seoul.
Pyongyang has never launched its most powerful missiles on a normal trajectory, and experts doubt they have the technology to survive entry into the atmosphere. North Korea, which declared itself an “irreversible” nuclear power last year, had previously announced that launching a military reconnaissance satellite was one of its priorities.