North Korea launches ICBM after Biden summits with Asia allies
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[May 25, 2022] By
Hyonhee Shin and Soo-hyang Choi
SEOUL (Reuters) -North Korea fired three
missiles on Wednesday, including one thought to be its largest
intercontinental ballistic missile, after U.S. President Joe Biden ended
an Asia trip where he agreed to new measures to deter the nuclear-armed
state.
South Korea's deputy national security adviser, Kim Tae-hyo, said the
North also appeared to have conducted multiple experiments with a
detonation device in preparation for its seventh nuclear test but that
the test was unlikely to occur in the coming days.
In response to the missile launches, the United States and South Korea
held combined live-fire drills, including surface-to-surface missile
tests involving the U.S. Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) and the
South's Hyunmoo-2 SRBM, both militaries said.
They also put on other military shows of force such as dozens of fighter
jets in an "Elephant Walk" formation, highlighting new South Korean
President Yoon Suk-yeol's harder-line policy on the North's accelerating
weapons tests.
His predecessor, liberal Moon Jae-in, staked his legacy on an ultimately
unsuccessful attempt to engage with Pyongyang, but began conducting more
military shows of force in the waning days of his administration this
year after North Korea test-fired a string of missiles.
Yoon, inaugurated on May 10, secured promises in a summit with Biden
over the weekend that the United States would increase joint military
drills and deploy more "strategic assets" - typically nuclear-capable
bombers, submarines, or aircraft carriers - to the region if necessary
to deter North Korea.
"Our military's show of force was intended to highlight our resolve to
firmly respond to any North Korean provocations, including an ICBM
launch, and our overwhelming capability and readiness to conduct a
surgical strike on the origin of the provocation," South Korea's Joint
Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.
In a phone call with U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, South
Korea's defence chief called for deploying American strategic assets and
said both sides agreed to reinforce U.S. extended deterrence to counter
the North's provocations, Seoul's defence ministry said.
North Korea has conducted a flurry of missile launches this year, from
hypersonic weapons to test firing its largest intercontinental ballistic
missiles (ICBMs) for the first time in nearly five years.
Washington and Seoul officials also recently warned that North Korea
appeared ready to resume nuclear weapons tests for the first time since
2017, possibly during Biden's visit, his first to Asia as president.
THREE MISSILES
The South Korean joint chiefs said the three missiles were fired on
Wednesday from the Sunan area of the North's capital, Pyongyang, where
its international airport has become a hub of missile tests.
The first missile appeared to be the North's largest ICBM, the
Hwasong-17, while a second unspecified missile appeared to have failed
mid-flight, said Kim, the deputy national security adviser. The third
missile was a short-range ballistic missile, seen as aimed at improving
its nuclear delivery capability, he said.
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A woman watches a TV broadcasting a news report on North Korea's
launch of three missiles what appeared to have involved an
intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), in Seoul, South Korea,
May 25, 2022. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji
"We think it had political intentions, to test our
new administration's security readiness ... and send a strategic
message to South Korea and the United States after President Biden
left," Kim told a briefing.
A military source in Seoul told Reuters that the second and third
missile were believed to be KN-23 SRBMs, which were first tested in
2019 and which experts said were designed to evade missile defences
by flying on a lower, "depressed" trajectory.
South Korea had described Pyongyang's Hwasong-17 test in March as a
failure, and the launch ended a self-imposed 2017 moratorium on
long-range missile and nuclear testing amid stalled denuclearisation
talks with Washington.
In Wednesday's test, the suspected ICBM flew 360 km (224 miles) to a
maximum altitude of 540 km, while the SRBM flew 760 km to a maximum
altitude of 60 km, the JCS said.
MESSAGE TO ALLIES
A White House official said that Biden, who departed Japan on
Tuesday evening, had been briefed on the launches. A State
Department spokesperson issued a statement urging the North to
"refrain from further provocations and engage in sustained and
substantive dialogue".
Japanese officials condemned the tests and Chief Cabinet Secretary
Hirokazu Matsuno said the North could take more provocative actions,
including a nuclear test.
"North Korea's continued provocations will only result in even
stronger, faster South Korea-U.S. deterrence, and bring deeper
isolation upon itself," Yoon's government said in a separate
statement.
South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin and U.S. Secretary of State
Antony Blinken agreed in a phone call to step up efforts to
reinforce extended deterrence and facilitate a new U.N. sanctions
resolution, Seoul's ministry said.
South Korea and the United States have offered to send COVID-19
vaccines to North Korea, which is battling its first confirmed
outbreak, and urged Pyongyang to return to diplomacy.
But there has been no response from Pyongyang to the diplomatic
overtures or offers of aid, Biden said.
In the waning hours of Biden's visit to the region, Russian and
Chinese bombers flew joint patrols near Japanese and South Korean
air defence zones on Tuesday in a pointed farewell.
(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Additional reporting by Soo-hyang Choi
and Josh Smith in Seoul, David Dolan and Mariko Katsumura in Tokyo,
and David Brunnstrom, Phillip Stewart, Kanishka Singh and Eric Beech
in Washington; Editing by Richard Pullin, Gerry Doyle and Edmund
Klamann)
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