SEOUL, July 26, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – North Korea said Friday that two missiles
fired under the supervision of leader Kim Jong Un were newly designed
tactical weapons that sent a “solemn warning” to the South over plans to hold
military drills with the United States.
Thursday’s missile tests were the first since Kim and US President Donald
Trump agreed to resume nuclear talks during an impromptu meeting last month
in the demilitarised zone between North and South Korea.
That working-level dialogue has yet to begin and, even before Thursday’s
launches, Pyongyang had warned the talks could be derailed by Washington and
Seoul’s refusal to scrap joint military exercises scheduled for next month.
KCNA provided no technical specifications, but said the latest tests were
of a “new-type tactical guided weapon” that sent a “solemn warning to the
South Korean warmongers” over their insistence on holding the joint drills
“in defiance of repeated warnings”.
There are close to 30,000 US troops stationed in South Korea and their
annual manoeuvres with South Korean soldiers have always infuriated
Pyongyang.
South Korean military monitors said the two short-range missiles fired on
Thursday flew nearly 450 kilometres and 700 kilometres respectively, before
splashing down in the sea between the Korean peninsula and Japan.
That range would allow them to hit any target in South Korea.
Japan’s defence minister called the launches “extremely regrettable” while
Seoul’s National Security Office expressed “strong concern” and the US called
for an end to such “provocations”.
– ‘Double-dealing behaviour’ –
According to KCNA, Kim said the new “state-of-the-art” missiles were
capable of low-altitude flight that made them difficult to intercept and
cautioned Seoul against “ignoring the warning” implicit in their development.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he believed the working-level talks
would still go ahead, and that the latest tests were a negotiating tactic.
“Everybody tries to get ready for negotiations and create leverage and
create risk for the other side,” Pompeo said in an interview with Bloomberg
Television.
“We remain convinced that there’s a diplomatic way forward, a negotiated
solution to this,” he said, adding he was unconcerned at the delay in getting
back to the table.
“If it takes another two weeks or four weeks, so be it,” he said.
Pyongyang carried out similar short-range launches in May, which Trump
dismissed at the time as “very standard stuff” that would have no impact on
his relationship with Kim.
Thursday’s launches came a day after US National Security Advisor John
Bolton — an arch-hawk regularly vilified by North Korean state media —
spoke with senior South Korean officials in Seoul.