Seoul blasts Pyongyang for latest, untimely launch

North Korea

Published: 27 Feb. 2022, 16:33 Updated: 27 Feb. 2022, 16:33

Seoul blasts Pyongyang for latest, untimely launch

Travelers at Seoul Station watch the news about a North Korean missile launch on Sunday morning. [YONHAP]

Seoul condemned Pyongyang’s latest missile launch on Sunday, particularly for its choice to do so despite the current crisis in Ukraine.

“The participants [of the National Security Council meeting] expressed their deep concern and grave regret over North Korea's firing of another ballistic missile today, despite the fact that the Republic of Korea and the United States have jointly made diplomatic efforts to resolve the issue while being patient with North Korea's successive missile launches,” the Blue House said in a statement released Sunday.

“In particular, it was pointed out during the meeting that launching a ballistic missile at a time when the world is working toward resolving the Ukraine war is never desirable for peace and stability in the world or in the Korean Peninsula and its region.”

The meeting, joined by National Security Adviser Suh Hoon, ministers of foreign affairs, unification and national defense, members of the National Intelligence Service and head of the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), was held in Seoul shortly after the test.

The JCS announced that a projectile “presumed to be a ballistic missile” was launched into the East Sea at 7:52 a.m. Sunday. The missile may have flown some 300 kilometers (186 miles) with an altitude reaching 620 kilometers.

This is the North’s eighth missile test since the start of the year, coming 10 days before the South's presidential election. Its last test was on Jan. 30, when it test-fired Hwasong-12, an intermediate range ballistic missile.

Pyongyang stopped the tests at the start of February, which some experts said could have been in lieu of the Beijing Winter Olympics, held from Feb. 4 to 20.

The nuclear envoys of Seoul and Washington also exchanged views over the phone following the test.

Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs Noh Kyu-duk and his American counterpart Sung Kim “shared an assessment” of the situation related to North Korea's ballistic missile launch and “expressed deep concerns and regrets,” the Foreign Ministry said.

“The two sides agreed to continue their diplomatic efforts to engage North Korea based on close cooperation between the Republic of Korea and the United States.”

A day before the test, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry released a statement written by researcher Ri Ji-song criticizing the United States for “meddling in the affairs” of Ukraine and shaking up the power balance in the region.

“The Ukraine crisis also has its roots in the power and arbitrariness of the United States, which has been clinging to unilateral sanctions and pressure while ignoring Russia's legal security demands and pursuing only world hegemony and military superiority,” said the statement.

If Pyongyang intends to use the test to send a political message, Washington must respond the more sternly, according to some experts.

“The Biden administration needs to show that it maintains strategic focus on the Indo-Pacific, including by responding sternly to Pyongyang’s provocations,” said Leif-Eric Easley, associate professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul. “North Korea is not going to do anyone the favor of staying quiet while the world deals with Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. Pyongyang has an ambitious schedule of military modernization. The Kim regime’s strength and legitimacy have become tied to testing ever better missiles.”

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Thursday under the lead of Russian President Vladimir Putin, U.S. President Joe Biden imposed sanctions on Russian banks and individuals including Putin and expanded military assistance to Ukraine, the third time within a year that Biden authorized immediate funding to defend Ukraine.

BY ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]