North Korea warns it will use Pacific as 'firing range'

2024-05-20 06:30:18      点击：430

A North Korean military vehicle launches a short-range ballistic missile during exercises in Sukchon, a western coastal town near Pyongyang, Monday, in this image provided by its official Korean Central News Agency. Yonhap

Seoul might be pushed to develop own nuclear weapons, ruling party leader says

By Jung Min-ho

North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast, Monday, claiming they are capable of carrying nuclear warheads that can destroy military air bases in South Korea.

The latest provocation came two days after the North launched an intercontinental ballistic missile, which prompted Seoul and Washington to deploy fighter aircraft including B-1B bombers on joint drills in the skies over South Korea's western sea.

North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that the artillery unit of its military fired two shots from a 600-millimeter multiple rocket launcher, aimed at targets 395 kilometers and 337 kilometers away, respectively. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff told reporters that it detected the missiles fired from Sukchon, a western coastal town near Pyongyang, and provided a similar assessment of the distances.


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Analysts say North Korea's latest provocation appears to have targeted two military facilities ― Cheongju Air Base and Kunsan (Gunsan) Air Base ― located approximately 350 kilometers and 400 kilometers from the launch point, respectively. The facilities house dozens of South Korean and U.S. fighter jets.

KCNA said that the rocket launchers ― each loaded with four shots ― were aimed at military air bases in South Korea, claiming that they can carry tactical nuclear weapons.

Kim Yo-jong, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's sister, again blamed South Korea and the U.S. for fueling tensions on the peninsula with their plans for combined military exercises.

"The frequency of using the Pacific as our firing range depends upon the U.S.," she said in a statement through KCNA.

She added that North Korea is closely observing the movements of U.S. strategic assets, vowing to take "corresponding counteraction" to what it deems as a threat to its security.

The two allies plan to hold a table-top exercise this week to improve their interoperability in case of North Korean nuclear attacks. The allies will conduct another major drill in March. North Korea has long reacted sensitively to such drills, using them as excuses to bolster its military capabilities ― a position increasingly supported by China and Russia amid a new Cold War climate.

Hours after North Korea's missile launches, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that it placed sanctions on four individuals and five entities believed to be linked to Pyongyang's weapons development program.

Those blacklisted include Ri Song-un, former economic and commercial counselor at North Korea's Embassy in Mongolia and Vladlen Amtchentsev, a Russian-born South African who has helped the regime buy oil illegally.

At a meeting with other lawmakers at the National Assembly later that day, Chung Jin-suk, interim leader of the ruling People Power Party, said the growing nuclear threats from North Korea might eventually push the South to develop its own nuclear weapons.

"The more North Korea increases the level of reckless threats, the more the public becomes supportive of arming South Korea with its own nuclear weapons," Chung said. "What North Korea is trying to achieve by developing ICBMs is to undermine the South Korea-U.S. alliance and to block any possibility of the U.S.' intervention in war should it occur … If our response [to North Korea's threats] is insufficient, we might have to think deeply about arming South Korea with nuclear weapons."