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South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense announced on Nov. 9 that they had determined from the debris of the North Korean missile that was recovered south of the NLL that it had been an SA-5, releasing this photo highlighting the likely portion of the missile that was recovered. (courtesy of the MND)

A North Korean missile that passed over the Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the East Sea and fell in international waters near Sokcho in Gangwon Province on Nov. 2 was an SA-5 missile developed during the Soviet era, the South Korean Ministry of National Defense (MND) said.

“On Nov. 6, we recovered remnants from a missile used by North Korea in its Nov. 2 provocation from south of the NLL in the East Sea, and a precision analysis was subsequently carried out jointly by the relevant organizations,” the MND said Wednesday.

“The recovered debris measured approximately 3 meters in length and 2 meters in width, and was determined based on its shape and characteristics to have been a North Korean SA-5 missile,” it explained.

This photo, released by South Korea’s MND, shows the debris of the North Korean missile that was recovered after crossing south of the NLL. (courtesy of the MND)

The missile in question was also present in a photograph made public by North Korea on Monday. On the morning of Nov. 2, North Korea test-launched three missiles over the East Sea, with one of them landing in the water at a point 26 km (16 miles) south of the NLL and 57 km east of Sokcho.

A surface-to-air missile developed by the Soviet Union to target US strategic bombers, the SA-5 can also be used as a surface-to-surface missile. Russia has reportedly used similar surface-to-air missiles as surface-to-surface missiles in the war in Ukraine.

The missiles are known to have long ranges and fast speeds of around Mach 4 (four times the speed of sound) but lack precision. North Korea reportedly acquired the missiles from the Soviet Union in the late 1980s and positioned them in Hwanghae Province, Wonsan, and the vicinity of Pyongyang, among other locations.

The MND said, “It is clear that North Korea’s launch of an SA-5 missile was a systematically planned provocation.”

“The South Korean armed forces strongly condemn this missile provocation by North Korea, which raises tensions on the Korean Peninsula and is in violation of the [inter-Korean] military agreement of September 19 [in 2018],” it added.

By Kwon Hyuk-chul, staff reporter

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