North Korea’s latest missile launch ‘raises alarms’ it’s serious about shooting down US planes
- One analyst says the launch is a warning to the US over spy planes flying near the North’s waters, and the impending arrival of a US nuclear submarine in the South
- Launch also appeared to be a morale booster after Pyongyang lost face by admitting to the failure of its much-vaunted space satellite launch last month, experts said
Yang Moo-jin, a political-science professor at the University of North Korean Studies, said Wednesday’s launch was intended as a warning to the US for its reconnaissance flights, and the impending arrival of a nuclear submarine in the South.
“This move alarmingly raises the possibility of the North carrying out its threat to shoot down US spy planes” flying over its exclusive economic zone, although international laws grant other countries the freedom of navigation and overflights in the zone, Yang said.
On Monday, a spokesperson for North Korea’s defence ministry accused the US spy aircraft of recently intruding into its airspace, threatening there was no guarantee such a plane would not be shot down.
The US and South Korea dismissed the North’s accusations and urged it to refrain from any acts or rhetoric that raises animosities.
It is noteworthy that Kim Yo-jong said on Monday she was “delegated” to give the US these warnings, meaning she was following orders, said political-science professor Park Won-gon from Ewha University.
“North Korea tends to follow through with actions when Kim Yo-jong says she is delegated by the leader to make such a warning,” he told This Week in Asia.
North Korea says it repelled a US spy plane after threat to shoot them down
In 2020, Kim Yo-jong said she was “delegated” to warn that an inter-Korean liaison office in the North’s border city of Kaesong would be destroyed.
At a summit in April 2023, South Korea and the US agreed to “further enhance the regular visibility of strategic assets to the Korean peninsula, as evidenced by the coming visit of a US nuclear ballistic missile submarine” to the South.
South Korea’s Yoon tells unification ministry to be less soft on North
Yang said the submarine’s arrival was likely to take place around July 18, when the inaugural meeting of the US-South Korea “Consultative Group” to discuss “extended deterrence” against the North opens in Seoul.
In a statement issued on Monday, a spokesperson of the North’s Defence Ministry noted that North Korea had shot down a US EC-121 reconnaissance plane in 1969, killing all 31 Americans on board and a US helicopter in North Korea in 1994, killing one of two pilots.
“You cannot compare current tensions to the past ones when the North had no nuclear weapons. To avoid a nuclear war, we must give diplomacy a chance again, rather than blindly continuing with sanctions and pressure that have produced little results for decades,” Yang said.
Leif-Eric Easley, international studies professor at Ewha University, said Washington and Seoul recognised the need to increase alliance cooperation to reassure the South Korean public and deter North Korean aggression.
“Visible visits by US strategic assets do not change the capabilities involved in the defence of South Korea but do demonstrate political will to coordinate the implementation of extended deterrence,” he said.
“However, Pyongyang is seizing upon the movement of American aircraft and submarines as an excuse to brandish and further develop its own weapons.”
Additional reporting by The Korea Times