North Korea fires submarine missiles in response to huge US-South Korea military drills
- State media said the missile test was linked to Washington and Seoul ‘getting evermore undisguised’ in their anti-North Korea military manoeuvres
- Freedom Shield drills train ‘to repel potential North Korean attacks and conduct a stabilisation campaign in the North’, South Korea’s military said
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Nuclear-armed Pyongyang said the test verified its “nuclear war deterrence means in different spaces” as it slammed the drills – known as Freedom Shield – which will run for 10 days from Monday as part of a drive to counter North Korea’s growing threats.
“The two strategic cruise missiles precisely hit the preset target on the East Sea of Korea,” the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
North Korea is not technically banned from firing cruise missiles under current UN sanctions – although tests relating to its nuclear arsenal are not allowed.
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North Korea test-launches two missiles from submarine as US-South Korea drills begin
The KCNA report said the test was linked to the US and South Korea “getting evermore undisguised in their anti-DPRK military manoeuvres”, referring to the North by its official name.
The South Korean military said it had detected the launch of at least one unidentified missile from a North Korean submarine Sunday morning.
Photos and video released by North Korean state media showed the submarine, the 8.24 Yongung, and a missile flying into the sky from the water, trailing white smoke and flames.
Analysts said “huge doubts” remain about how advanced the North’s submarine programme is.
North Korea’s Kim orders military to get ready for ‘actual war’
Park Won-gon, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, said the state media images suggested the missile was fired from above the water.
“Then there is no point in shooting from a submarine because there is no stealth,” Park said.
“North Korea says the weapons are deployed, but whether we believe it with credibility is another matter.”
The Freedom Shield drills “involve wartime procedures to repel potential North Korean attacks and conduct a stabilisation campaign in the North”, the South Korean military has said.
It emphasised that the exercise was a “defensive one based on a combined operational plan”.
“North Korea has been speaking in missiles against joint drills,” said Go Myong-hyun, a researcher at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul.
“It wants to emphasise that the reason for developing missiles is for self-defence purposes.”
[The US has] effectively acknowledged that North Korea will never give up its nuclear programme
The foreign ministry in Pyongyang also released a statement Monday slamming the US over what it called “the US vicious ‘human rights’ racket”, after Washington said it would hold a UN meeting this week on abuses in North Korea.
Last year, North Korea declared itself an “irreversible” nuclear power and fired a record-breaking number of missiles.
Washington has repeatedly restated its “ironclad” commitment to defending South Korea, including using the “full range of its military capabilities, including nuclear”.
South Korea, for its part, is eager to reassure its increasingly nervous public about the US commitment to so-called extended deterrence, in which US military assets, including nuclear weapons, serve to prevent attacks on allies.
Although the official policy of both countries towards North Korea – that Kim must give up his nukes and return to the table for talks – has not changed, experts said there had been a practical shift.
The US has “effectively acknowledged that North Korea will never give up its nuclear programme”, said An Chan-il, a defector turned researcher who runs the World Institute for North Korea Studies.
The Freedom Shield drill is the first since that happened, meaning it “will be very different – both qualitatively and quantitatively – from previous joint exercises that took place in recent years”, he added.
If the US shoots down our missiles then it’s war, North Korea warns
North Korea is likely to use this “as an excuse” to double down on its banned weapons programmes, said Chun In-bum, a retired South Korean army general.
“More missile launches with variations in style and scope should be expected with even a nuclear test. More acts of intimidation from North Korea should not come as a surprise.”
