Question of nuclear test looms after North launches eight missiles

North Korea

Published: 05 Jun. 2022, 18:57 Updated: 06 Jun. 2022, 00:10

Question of nuclear test looms after North launches eight missiles

South Korean and U.S. aircraft and naval vessels move in formation during a combined military exercise in international waters off the Japanese island of Okinawa on Saturday. [YONHAP]

South Korea’s National Security Council (NSC) strongly condemned the North’s latest missile launches Sunday, saying Pyongyang will “gain nothing” from its continued saber-rattling.

The remarks came shortly after the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the North fired eight short-range ballistic missiles into waters off its east coast.

The missiles were said to have been fired between 9:08 a.m. and 9:43 a.m. from the Sunan area of North Korea’s capital, Pyongyang, as well as three other locations.

The missiles flew 110 to 670 kilometers (68 to 416 miles) at maximum altitudes of 25 to 90 kilometers while reaching speeds of Mach 3 to 6.

Sunday’s weapons test marked North Korea’s 18th this year, the third since conservative South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol was sworn into office on May 10.

The last time Pyongyang carried out a missile test was 11 days earlier, as U.S. President Joe Biden was on his way back home following a trip to South Korea and Japan. One of the three missiles that the North tested that day was an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

In regards to relations with Pyongyang, Yoon promised a tougher stance than his liberal predecessor, Moon Jae-in, though he said he was open to talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

The latest missiles also came a day after Seoul and Washington completed a three-day combined naval exercise involving the U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan. The exercise was held in international waters off the Japanese island of Okinawa.

Sung Kim, Washington’s special envoy for North Korea, was in South Korea for trilateral denuclearization talks with Seoul and Tokyo when Pyongyang conducted the eight missile launches.

Seoul’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the U.S. envoy, who was planning to leave the country on Sunday afternoon, held an unscheduled meeting with his South Korean counterpart, Kim Gunn, to discuss the provocation. Their Japanese counterpart Takehiro Funakoshi, who had already left Seoul, joined via telephone.

The ministry said the three nuclear envoys pointed out that the missile test was a flagrant violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions, and expressed “deep regret” for Pyongyang developing missiles even as its people were battling the coronavirus.

President Yoon, who was planning to join a volunteer program on Sunday picking up trash along the Han River with his wife, first lady Kim Keon-hee, canceled the schedule and instead attended a meeting with the NSC Standing Committee at his office in Yongsan District, central Seoul.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, center, speaks during a meeting with members of the National Security Council Standing Committee at the presidential office in Yongsan District, central Seoul, on Sunday morning, shortly after North Korea fired eight ballistic missiles into the East Sea. [YONHAP]

The meeting was presided over by his national security adviser, Kim Sung-han, for an hour and 20 minutes from 10:40 a.m.

The presidential office later quoted Yoon as urging the military to continuously strengthen its extended deterrence and combined defense posture with the United States.

Participants in the meeting urged that North Korea choose the path of dialogue and cooperation, and quickly realize it would gain nothing from carrying out nuclear and missile threats, the presidential office said in a press release.

Those who joined the NSC meeting included Foreign Minister Park Jin, Unification Minister Kwon Young-se, National Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup, National Intelligence Service chief Kim Kyou-hyun, NSC First Deputy Director Kim Tae-hyo and NSC Second Deputy Director Shin In-ho.

The looming question among military experts is when the regime will carry out a nuclear test.

South Korean officials have for weeks floated the possibility of an imminent nuclear experiment, which would be the seventh of its kind if North Korea follows through. Officials in Seoul and Washington have mentioned recent satellite images of ongoing tunnel excavation and construction work at Punggye-ri as signs that the regime is preparing for another test.

The Punggye-ri test site, located in a mountainous region in the country’s remote North Hamgyong Province, is the North’s only known nuclear test site and the location of six nuclear weapons tests between October 2006 and September 2017.

North Korea promised to shut down the Punggye-ri test site in early 2018 and even invited a group of foreign journalists to watch the destruction of some tunnels, but analysts have noted continued activity there.

Some experts predict the North could carry out more missile tests, if not a nuclear experiment, in the coming days as Seoul, Washington and Tokyo hold military talks.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman is scheduled to visit Seoul on Monday for a three-day visit as part of a tour around Asia.

A defense ministerial meeting between the three countries is expected to be held later this week at the Shangri-La Dialogue, a security conference held annually in Singapore.

“North Korea is trying to show off its tactical diversity and repeatedly state that no matter how much South Korea, the U.S. and Japan strengthen their extended deterrence, nothing will stop them,” said Park Won-gon, a North Korean studies professor at Ewha Womans University.

At a time when the North is battling a Covid-19 outbreak, Lim Eul-chul, a professor at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University, warned that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un could face serious backlash from his people if he ignores Covid containment measures.

Pyongyang has repeatedly ignored calls from Seoul, Washington and international health organizations to provide Covid vaccines to its citizens, claiming that the situation was improving.

To date, the regime has reported more than 4 million Covid cases since late April, though pundits disbelieve the figure because the North counts its patients by the number of people with fever symptoms, not by positive test results.

Citing unidentified sources in North Korea, Radio Free Asia recently reported that the North has begun administering Chinese vaccines to soldiers working on a major construction project in Pyongyang.

“North Korea’s crisis management system is currently being tested on two different fronts — Covid control and nuclear weapons,” said Prof. Lim. If North Korean leader Kim “fails to solve the Covid situation and livelihood problems, he won’t be able to appease his people with nuclear weapons alone.”

BY LEE SUNG-EUN, PARK HYUN-JU [lee.sungeun@joongang.co.kr]