Worries about new tests by North grow as Biden visit approaches

North Korea

Published: 19 May. 2022, 17:23 Updated: 19 May. 2022, 19:06

Worries about new tests by North grow as Biden visit approaches

In this photo released by the state-run Rodong Sinmun, North Korea's most advanced intercontinental ballistic missile to date, the Hwasong-17, is paraded through downtown Pyongyang on April 25 during a parade celebrating the 90th anniversary of the founding of the regime's armed forces. [NEWS1]

A U.S. reconnaissance plane flew over the waters east of the Korean Peninsula as North Korea appeared to be preparing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test just before U.S. President Joe Biden's arrival in Seoul on Friday.

The U.S. Air Force's RC-135S Cobra Ball reconnaissance aircraft flew from Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan to the East Sea on Thursday morning, apparently with the aim of monitoring North Korea's ballistic missile launch preparations.

The RC-135S is equipped with state-of-the-art electronic optical devices that can track ballistic missiles from a long distance.

The plane is known to have flown over the East Sea and conducted long-distance surveillance of Pyongyang on previous missions.

The plane’s flight over the East Sea came as South Korean and U.S. authorities detected signs of an imminent ICBM test by the North one day before Biden lands in Seoul for the first U.S.-South Korea summit since President Yoon Suk-yeol took office, scheduled to be held in Seoul on Saturday.

The North’s most advanced ICBM to have been successfully tested to date, the Hwasong-15, requires liquid fuel loading before a launch. Such activities can be detected pre-launch by Seoul and Washington.

U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in a press briefing at the White House on Wednesday North Korea is expected to stage a long-range ballistic missile or nuclear weapons test before or even during Biden’s trip to South Korea and Japan, and that the United States is fully prepared to make any necessary adjustments to U.S. defense posture to ensure the security of the U.S. and its allies.

“With respect to the issue of North Korea, we have said from this podium, we said at the State Department and we have indicated in quite clear terms that our intelligence does reflect the genuine possibility that there will be either a further missile test, including long range missile test, or a nuclear test or frankly both in the days leading into on or after the president's trip to the region,” Sullivan said at the briefing.

“We are preparing for all contingencies, including the possibility that such a provocation would occur while we are in Korea or in Japan,” he added.

North Korea has conducted 16 missile launches this year. U.S. officials have said the country could conduct its seventh nuclear test as early as the end of this month.

The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) told lawmakers in a closed-door briefing that a major weapons test by the North was imminent.

People Power Party (PPP) lawmaker Ha Tae-keung, who sits on the National Assembly’s Intelligence Committee, told reporters after the briefing that “there are signs of a missile launch even though the [North] is in the midst of a Covid-19 outbreak” and that “all preparations” for a nuclear test “have been completed.”

The spy agency’s view that the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak in the North will not stall a missile test by the regime appears to be shared by the U.S. government.

State Department Press Secretary Ned Price said there was no “expectation” of any delays when asked about such a possibility on Tuesday.

“We have never seen the DPRK regime prioritize the humanitarian concerns of their own people over these destabilizing programs that pose a threat to peace and security in the Indo-Pacific and beyond. So I do not think there is any expectation of that,” he said, referring to the North by the acronym for its official name, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]