N. Korea preparing to launch new missiles
N. Korea preparing to launch new missiles
North Korea is preparing to test new rockets, a report said Thursday, after its leader Kim
Jong-Un said the country was in the final stages of developing inter-continental ballistic
missiles. Pyongyang’s missile programme and its pursuit of nuclear arms have seen it
repeatedly sanctioned by the UN Security Council. Quoting high-level South Korean officials
and South Korean and US military sources, the South’s Yonhap news agency said two new
missiles had been loaded onto mobile launchers. They were believed to be equipped with
new engines that the North tested last April, it added, when Pyongyang said they would
“guarantee” an eventual nuclear strike on the US mainland. The missiles’ existence appeared
to have been intentionally leaked by Pyongyang, according to Yonhap, to send a “strategic
message” to incoming US president Donald Trump, due to be sworn in on Friday. CNN and
other US news reports, quoting a US defence official, said last week that the Pentagon had
deployed a high-tech sea-based X-band radar system to keep watch for a possible North
Korean long-range missile launch in the coming months. A spokesman for the South Korean
military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the Yonhap report had not been verified. Two US defence
officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP the Pentagon was not seeing signs of
any “imminent” launch. One of the officials said Friday’s US presidential inauguration and
several political anniversaries in North Korea were fuelling speculation about a possible new
launch. In his closely-watched New Year speech, Kim Jong-Un said North Korea was in the
“final stages” of developing an ICBM. He said the country had significantly bolstered its
nuclear deterrent in 2016, pointing to a string of nuclear and missile tests last year. Analysts
are divided over how close Pyongyang is to realising its full nuclear ambitions, especially as it
has never successfully test-fired an ICBM. But all agree it has made enormous strides in that
direction since Kim took over as leader from his father Kim Jong-Il, who died in December
2011. A senior US defence official said last month that the North has developed the capability
to pair a nuclear warhead with a missile and launch it. But it has not mastered the ability to
bring the weapon back from space and onto a target, he said.