hankyoreh

North Korea launched four missiles in succession on Mar. 6, once again announcing an end to its hiatus on missile launches since late 2016.
North Korea had not launched any missiles since a Musudan on Oct. 20 of last year. The break was a relatively long one when contrasted with the one to four missiles launched every month earlier last year. The period lasted from the final stages of the US presidential election until just after the inauguration of the Donald Trump administration. Pyongyang may have waited to see the new US administration’s process of re-examining its North Korea policy.
The North launched missiles on Feb. 12, breaking a silence that had lasted an unprecedented period of over four months. The latest launches are the second since then. But while the Feb. 12 launch was focused on testing the new Pukguksong-2 missile, the latest launches appear more likely to be intended as launch exercises for existing missiles.
“If they were test-launching a new missile, they wouldn‘t be firing four at a time,” said Kim Dong-yeop, a professor at the Kyungnam University Institute for Far Eastern Studies.
“It’s very likely that they were launching existing missiles as both a winter exercise and a response to South Korea and the US‘s joint military exercises,” Kim added. The launch appears to hint at the possibility of Pyongyang returning to its past pattern of active missile launching.

Photos from the Mar. 7 edition of the Rodong Simun newspaper of the Mar. 6 launch of four ballistic missiles from Tongchang Village

North Korea appears to have launched its latest missiles at a regular rather than high angle. The altitude of a missile at a normal trajectory is typically one-third to one-fourth of its firing range. The figures for the latest missiles - a flight path of 1,000 km and an altitude of 260 km - roughly fall in line with those observed in a normal launch. North Korean missile varieties capable of traveling around 1,000 km when launched normally include the Nodong and Scud extended range missiles. On the morning of Mar. 7, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missiles appeared to be extended range Scuds.

Flight distance for the Musudan, which has an estimated maximal range of over 3,000 km, can be reduced to 1,000 km through use of less fuel, but that possibility does not appear high after last year’s precedent of only one successful launch in eight attempts.

The South Korean military announced that the four missiles were launched in succession within a period of 10 minutes. All traveled toward the East Sea from the Tongchang village area of North Pyongan Province, moving in slightly different directions with azimuths ranging from 75 to 93 degrees before descending. The missiles fell in the waters around 300 km east of the Japan Air Defense Identification Zone, or about 260 km west of Hokkaido. They were first detected two minutes after launch at 7:36 by the Aegis-equipped destroyer Sejong Daewang and Green Pine ballistic missile early warning radar.

“Because of the Earth’s curved surface, it takes about two minutes for a missile to appear over the horizon after launch,” explained a military officer.

On Mar. 5, the US State Department denounced North Korea’s ballistic missile launch as a violation of a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution.

“The US strongly condemns North Korea’s launching of ballistic missiles,” acting State Department spokesperson Mark Toner said when asked for comment by the Hankyoreh on Mar. 6.

“This is a clear violation of a UNSC resolution forbidding any launches using ballistic missile technology,” he added.

Toner went on to say the US had “used influential channels and means available to all countries to make it clear to North Korea and its helpers that any additional launches would be unacceptable, and we hope measures are taken to show that there is a price to be paid for North Korea’s illegal actions.”

Japan also responded sensitively. Speaking to reporters at his official residence that morning, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe noted that “[some of] the missiles launched by North Korea landed near Japan’s EEZ [exclusive economic zone].”

“We send North Korea a stern message of protest,” he added.

Abe also said the latest ballistic missile launches “clearly show that North Korea has become a new kind of threat.”

“We are analyzing this with great interest,” he said.

Abe convened a meeting of Japan’s National Security Council. In a separate press conference, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the Japanese government would “set up a crisis management center in the Prime Minister’s residence to respond [to the launches] by summarizing information on the North Korean situation and hold meetings of officials in related agencies.”

China voiced opposition to North Korea‘s missile launches, but also urged restraint from other countries.

“Clear UNSC regulations exist on North Korea’s missile development. China opposes [North Korea] launching missiles in violation of a UN resolution,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang in a regular briefing on Mar. 6.

“China is also watching closely as the US and South Korea hold large-scale joint military exercises aimed at North Korea. We hope all the countries involved will maintain restraint and avoid actions that raise tensions,” he added.

By Park Byong-su, senior staff writer, Yi Yong-in, Gil Yun-hyung and Kim Oi-hyun, Washington, Tokyo and Beijing correspondents

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