{"id":213602,"date":"2019-05-10T02:02:11","date_gmt":"2019-05-10T06:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=213602"},"modified":"2019-05-10T02:02:11","modified_gmt":"2019-05-10T06:02:11","slug":"n-korea-fires-2-suspected-missiles-in-possible-new-warning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/05\/10\/n-korea-fires-2-suspected-missiles-in-possible-new-warning\/","title":{"rendered":"N. Korea fires 2 suspected missiles in possible new warning"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: Kim Jong-un (Photo By Blue House (Republic of Korea), KOGL<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SEOUL,\u00a0Korea, Republic Of \u2014\u00a0North\u00a0Korea\u00a0fired two suspected short-range missiles toward the sea on Thursday, South Korean officials said, its second weapons launch in five days and a possible warning that nuclear disarmament talks with Washington could be in danger.<\/p>\n

South\u00a0Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the weapons flew 420 kilometres (260 miles) and 270 kilometres (167 miles), respectively. It said it is working with the United States to determine more details, such as the types of weapons that were fired.\u00a0North\u00a0Korean state media said Friday that leader Kim Jong Un helped guide the firing of the missiles Thursday and learned about \u201cvarious long-range strike means,\u201d but the statement from the propaganda services didn’t provide more specifics on the type of missiles fired.<\/p>\n

What was launched Thursday is a crucial detail, as\u00a0North\u00a0Korea\u00a0is banned by the United Nations from testing ballistic missiles. Such a test could result in more sanctions, and the\u00a0North’s so far unsuccessful push for large-scale sanctions relief is at the heart of the current diplomatic impasse with Washington.<\/p>\n

South\u00a0Korea’s military said earlier that at least one projectile was launched from the Sino-ri area of\u00a0North\u00a0Pyongan province, an area known to have one of\u00a0North\u00a0Korea’s oldest missile bases where a brigade operates mid-range Rodong missiles. It later said there were two launches from the nearby town of Kusong, where\u00a0North\u00a0Korea\u00a0conducted its first successful flight tests of its Hwasong-12 intermediate-range missile and Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile, both in 2017.<\/p>\n

Kusong is also home to missile test facilities that were critical to the development of\u00a0North\u00a0Korea’s solid-fuel Pukguksong-2, which was successfully flight-tested for the first time in February 2017, in the\u00a0North’s first missile test after President Donald Trump took office.<\/p>\n

The latest launches came as\u00a0U.S.\u00a0Special Representative for\u00a0North\u00a0Korea\u00a0Stephen Biegun visited South\u00a0Korea, and hours after the\u00a0North\u00a0described its firing of rocket artillery and an apparent short-range ballistic missile on Saturday as a regular and defensive military exercise.\u00a0North\u00a0Korea\u00a0also ridiculed South\u00a0Korea\u00a0for criticizing those launches.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump said he was not happy about\u00a0North\u00a0Korea’s recent military tests. Trump told reporters at the White House on Thursday that \u201cwe’re looking\u201d at the situation \u201cvery seriously right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the weapons were smaller, short-range missiles, but added: \u201cNobody’s happy about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump, who has met with Kim twice now, said: \u201cI don’t think they’re ready to negotiate.\u201d<\/p>\n

South Korean President Moon Jae-in urged\u00a0North\u00a0Korea\u00a0to refrain from actions that could impede diplomacy. In an interview with the KBS television network, Moon also said Seoul will explore various options to help revive the talks, including providing food aid to the\u00a0North\u00a0and pushing for his fourth summit with Kim.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to tell\u00a0North\u00a0Korea\u00a0once again that it’s not ideal to repeat actions that create various interpretations of its intent, raise concern and risk throwing cold water on the atmosphere of dialogue and negotiations,\u201d said Moon, a liberal who facilitated contacts between the United States and\u00a0North\u00a0Korea\u00a0last year.<\/p>\n

Moon’s office earlier said the\u00a0North\u00a0Korean launches were \u201cvery concerning\u201d and detrimental to efforts to improve inter-Korean ties and ease military tensions on the Korean Peninsula.<\/p>\n

Some analysts have said that if\u00a0North\u00a0Korea\u00a0resumes testing the kind of longer-range banned ballistic weapons that it fired in unusually large numbers in 2017 \u2014 when many feared a\u00a0U.S.-North\u00a0Koreastandoff could end in war \u2014 it may signal that\u00a0North\u00a0Korea\u00a0is turning away from diplomacy.<\/p>\n

The tensions in 2017 were followed by a surprising diplomatic outreach by\u00a0North\u00a0Korea\u00a0in 2018, when Kim attended summits with the South Korean and Chinese presidents and with Trump. But\u00a0NorthKorea\u00a0has not received what it wants most from its summitry: relief from punitive sanctions imposed over its nuclear and missile programs.<\/p>\n

A summit earlier this year between Trump and Kim ended in failure, with the United States saying that\u00a0North\u00a0Korea\u00a0was not offering to take enough disarmament steps in return for the widespread sanctions relief it sought.<\/p>\n

In Geneva on Thursday,\u00a0North\u00a0Korean Ambassador Han Tae Song likened the economic sanctions to \u201ccrimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just ahead of the Thursday launch, senior defence officials from South\u00a0Korea, the United States and Japan met in Seoul to discuss\u00a0North\u00a0Korea’s earlier launches on Saturday and other security issues. Details from the meeting weren’t immediately announced.<\/p>\n

Experts who analyzed photos from\u00a0North\u00a0Korean state media say it’s clear that the\u00a0North\u00a0tested a new solid-fuel missile on Saturday that appears to be modeled after Russia’s Iskander short-range ballistic missile system.<\/p>\n

With the consecutive weapons launches,\u00a0North\u00a0Korea\u00a0is pressuring South\u00a0Korea\u00a0to turn away from the United States and support\u00a0North\u00a0Korea’s position more strongly, said Du Hyeogn Cha, a visiting scholar at Seoul’s Asan Institute for Policy Studies. Following the collapse of the Trump-Kim meeting,\u00a0North\u00a0Korea\u00a0demanded that South\u00a0Korea\u00a0proceed with joint economic projects that have been held back by\u00a0U.S.-led sanctions against the\u00a0North.<\/p>\n

By firing weapons that directly threaten South\u00a0Korea\u00a0but not the\u00a0U.S.\u00a0mainland or its Pacific territories,\u00a0North\u00a0Korea\u00a0also appears to be testing how far Washington will tolerate its bellicosity without actually causing the nuclear negotiations to collapse, Cha said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo the United States, the\u00a0North\u00a0is saying ‘don’t push me into a corner.’ To South\u00a0Korea, the\u00a0North\u00a0is saying the inter-Korean peace agreements could become nothing if Seoul fails to coax major concessions from the United States on behalf of the\u00a0North,\u201d Cha said.<\/p>\n

Some observers say\u00a0North\u00a0Korea\u00a0may fire more missiles, including medium-range ones, to increase the pressure on the United States. Cha said\u00a0North\u00a0Korea\u00a0isn’t likely to fire longer-range missiles, such as its Hwasong-12 intermediate-range missiles and Hwasong-14 and 15 intercontinental ballistic missiles, unless it intends to completely abandon diplomacy since it is certain to invite new U.N. sanctions.<\/p>\n

North\u00a0Korea\u00a0last conducted a major missile test in November 2017 when it flight-tested the Hwasong-15 and demonstrated the potential capability to reach deep into the\u00a0U.S.\u00a0mainland. Experts think\u00a0NorthKorea\u00a0still needs more tests to make its ICBMs viable.<\/p>\n

Kim in a New Year’s speech said he hopes to continue his nuclear summitry with Trump, but would seek a \u201cnew way\u201d if the United States persists with sanctions and pressure against\u00a0North\u00a0Korea.<\/p>\n

Following the collapse of his second summit with Trump in February, Kim said he is open to a third meeting, but set the end of the year as a deadline for Washington to offer mutually acceptable terms for an agreement.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SEOUL,\u00a0Korea, Republic Of \u2014\u00a0North\u00a0Korea\u00a0fired two suspected short-range missiles toward the sea on Thursday, South Korean officials said, its second weapons …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":158588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-213602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","mauthors-kim-tong-hyung","mauthors-hyung-jin-kim","mauthors-foster-klug","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213602"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":213603,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213602\/revisions\/213603"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}