North Korea launches ‘ballistic missile’ just 24 hours before South Korean presidential election

LAST UPDATE: 10.20

North Korea today launched a missile, which was presented as “ballistic” by Seoul, continuing its series of weapons tests, four days before the presidential election in South Korea.

Pyongyang conducted seven weapons tests in January, including the most powerful missile it has launched since 2017, before suspending them for the duration of the Beijing Winter Olympics.

On February 28, it announced that it was conducting a “major” test to launch a spy satellite, with Seoul watching the launch of a ballistic missile. Today is the ninth launch it has made this year.

In defiance of international sanctions against it, Pyongyang is stepping up arms tests and rejecting US bids for dialogue since 2019, when talks between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and then-US President Donald Trump collapsed.

It has redoubled its efforts to modernize its military, and in January threatened to end a moratorium on nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The South Korean National Defense General Staff announced today that it had spotted the launch of a “ballistic missile to the east from the Sunan region at around 08:48 (Seoul time; 01:48 Greek time)”.

The South Korean presidency’s National Security Council, which convened an emergency meeting as usual in Pyongyang’s weapons tests, condemned the “repeated ballistic missile launches” that have reached “unprecedented” levels, stressing that they are international level, said in a press release published by the Blue House.

Seoul “will closely monitor North Korea’s nuclear and missile installations, such as Yongbyon and Pung-ri,” the source said.

Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kisi said the missile had reached a maximum altitude of “about 550 kilometers” and had traveled a distance of “about 300 kilometers”. He criticized the “extreme” pace of North Korea’s weapons tests since the beginning of the year, calling them a “threat to the periphery” of Asia.

Some analysts see the escalation of the tests as an expression of Pyongyang’s dissatisfaction with outgoing President Moon Jae-in.

The launch of ballistic missiles by North Korea, a country with a nuclear arsenal, is formally prohibited by UN Security Council resolutions.

Since Joe Biden took over the US presidency more than a year ago, Washington has repeatedly stated that it is ready to start negotiations anywhere and without preconditions with North Korea. Pyongyang, however, has so far rejected the offer, accusing the other side and its allies of pursuing a “hostile” policy toward it.

On Friday, the US-based non-governmental organization 38 North, which systematically monitors North Korea’s military armaments activities, noted that North Korea’s main nuclear facility has picked up momentum, producing fuel for other nuclear or other nuclear weapons. for the expansion of the country’s nuclear power plant.