North Korea fired multiple close-range ballistic missiles on Tuesday as South Korean president Lee Jaye Myung held a meeting to ramp up efforts to acquire nuclear-powered submarines.
The South Korean military said they detected multiple projectiles, including a short-range ballistic missile fired from near Chongju in North Pyongan province towards the West Sea, which flew 80km before falling into the sea.
The launch was conducted at around 1pm local time.
This was the first launch since 19 April, when Pyongyang tested Hwasongpho-11, a surface-to-surface tactical ballistic missile with a cluster-bomb warhead known as the North Korean Iskander. That launch was accompanied by tests of carbon-fibre bombs and an electromagnetic weapons system which North Korea described as “special assets” for its military.
The latest launch came hours after Mr Lee led a cabinet meeting where he urged stronger efforts to advance the country’s military.
He called on his administration to accelerate efforts to acquire nuclear-powered submarines and to swiftly transfer wartime operational control of troops from Washington to Seoul.
Mr Lee didn’t specifically comment on any threats posed by the North but emphasised the importance of Seoul demonstrating the “resolve to take responsibility for and protect our own security ourselves”, saying such a posture would also strengthen the country’s alliance with the US.
The test on Tuesday also came ahead of Xi Jinping’s likely visit to North Korea later this month. The Chinese president’s first visit to the neighbouring country in seven years, if confirmed, would follow his back-to-back summits with Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made a fresh pledge in March to retain his country’s status as a nuclear-armed state – despite suffering under UN sanctions for its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes since 2006 – saying that expanding the “self-defensive nuclear deterrent” was essential to national security.
Mr Kim also reiterated his increasingly hardline stance towards South Korea, characterising the neighbouring country as the permanent and “hostile enemy” and dashing Seoul’s hopes of easing tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
At a press briefing on Tuesday, a spokesperson for South Korea’s foreign ministry urged Pyongyang to respond to Seoul’s peace overtures and efforts to reduce tensions.
Seoul would maintain its goal of the complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, the spokesperson said, while pursuing a pragmatic approach to resolving the North Korean nuclear issue in coordination with the international community.
