The tit-for-tat on the Korean peninsula has moved into the sky. On Monday morning North Korea sent several ballistic missiles eastward from the Pyongyang region, less than a week after South Korea staged the first test of its own hypersonic glide vehicle.
South Korean radar caught the first launch shortly after 9:20 local time. Military analysts believe Pyongyang used at least two different designs, one of which covered a distance of over 900 kilometres. Tokyo said two projectiles splashed down well away from Japan’s coast, beyond the 200-nautical-mile zone it controls economically.
South Korean officials did not hide how they read the move. A military spokesman called it a reaction to the South’s successful hypersonic test and a deliberate display of what the North can do. Asked what kind of missiles had flown, he would not be drawn, saying the data was still being studied.
The launches cap an unusually busy month. It is the fourth round of tests in roughly four weeks and the North’s tenth or more this year. On October 3 Pyongyang fired what its state media later described as an intermediate-range missile linked to a hypersonic weapons system, in a drill overseen by Kim Jong Un.
Relations between the two Koreas have soured since September, when a mine blast on the southern side of the border injured three soldiers. Seoul and the UN Command say the North planted the devices deliberately; Pyongyang rejects the accusation. Officials in the presidential office met in emergency session on Monday and said the tests once again violated the UN ban on Pyongyang’s ballistic programme.
Some analysts see a second calculation at work. Some observers think Kim is also playing a longer game: by flexing his arsenal now, he may hope to enter a possible meeting with Donald Trump holding a stronger hand.
