(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Lee Eun-jung = North Korea, which has repeatedly rejected the South Korean government's demands for an apology and offer of dialogue for a landmine explosion in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), continued its show of force by launching a 'mid-range hypersonic missile.'
Kim Yo-jung, the head of the Workers' Party's General Affairs Department, unusually announced the fact of training on the day of the missile launch and even downplayed the detection capabilities of the Korean and Japanese military authorities, thereby reaffirming her previously stated stance of 'rejecting dialogue' through action.
According to North Korean media such as the Korean Central News Agency on the 4th, Chairman Kim Jong-un emphasized that continuous verification and performance improvement of weapons systems are "a form of exercising deterrence" while observing a mid-range strategic missile launch training held early in the morning the previous day.
Chairman Kim said, “We must continuously and repeatedly make efforts to make our opponents aware of the reliability and lethality of strategic attack means,” and added, “There can be no change in our views and lines.”
These weapons system tests are essential to secure deterrence to ensure national security, and as an extension, they reaffirm the intention not to give up the policy of strengthening nuclear weapons.
This missile launch took place three days after our military authorities demanded an apology and responsible action from North Korea in connection with an incident in which three South Korean soldiers were seriously injured by a North Korean landmine recently planted in the area south of the DMZ Military Demarcation Line (MDL) of the 25th Division on the Western Front.
Director Kim Yo-jong directly disclosed the news of the missile training about 12 hours after the ballistic missile launch and claimed that the Korean and Japanese military authorities had failed to track the missile, directly citing missile flight figures announced by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Japanese Ministry of Defense.
Normally, North Korea announced its results through state-run media reports such as the Korean Central News Agency the day after a missile launch or kept it private, but it is said to be unprecedented to announce its position in the name of Kim Yo-jong, who is mainly in charge of speaking to South Korea and the United States, on the day of the launch like this.
In particular, North Korea stated that it launched a 'mid-range strategic missile' the day before, and specified that the purpose of the training was 'proficiency in firepower service capabilities of missile soldiers handling hypersonic strategic weapon systems', so it is evaluated that it test-launched a hypersonic missile that can hit Guam, where the US military base is located.
This year, they mainly test-fired short-range missiles aimed at South Korea, but this time they launched a mid-range missile capable of hitting US military bases in Japan or Guam, raising the level of threat against the US to another level.
Hong Min, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification, said, "Instead of responding to our military's request for an apology and warnings about border fortifications, they aimed to change the game with their own agenda of missile capabilities and detection gaps." He added, "In the case of proposals for inter-Korean dialogue or land mine explosions, they have demonstrated through their actions a declaration of 'no interaction' toward South Korea and the United Nations Command (United States)."
Director Kim has recently denied the military authorities' announcement of a 'North Korean landmine explosion' in the DMZ as an "obvious self-made play" and has repeatedly drawn a line against the government's demands for an apology and proposals for dialogue.
President Lee Jae-myung's Armed Forces Day commemoration speech, in which he promised to continue taking measures to reduce military tensions between North and South Korea, was criticized as a "self-made farce," and Unification Minister Chung Dong-young's proposal for inter-Korean dialogue was dismissed as "a delusion and one-sided complaint that is not worth responding to."
He also stated, “We do not determine the border line through talks, but through the thorough exercise of sovereignty, that is, through the use of force,” and made it clear that he would not stop upgrading nuclear forces and fortifying the border line.
Lim Chul, a professor at the Institute of Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University, predicted that the strategy of upgrading nuclear deterrence will be maintained for the time being, saying, "Not only in dialogue with South Korea but also with the United States, they will now pursue their claims not through dialogue or negotiation, but through overwhelming deterrence through the development of missiles and new weapons."
