Photo released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on February 2, 2024 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (C) inspecting the Nampho Dockyard in North Korea
Published February 2, 2024
- Kim embarked on an even more intense regime of military preparedness in Jan.
Kim has embarked on an even more intense regime of military preparedness this year, declaring South Korea his country’s ‘principal enemy’, shuttering agencies dedicated to reunification and outreach, and threatening war over ‘even 0.001 mm’ of territorial infringement.
Pyongyang has also carried out ever more weapons tests, including multiple cruise missile launches, an ‘underwater nuclear weapon system’ test, plus firing a solid-fuelled hypersonic ballistic missile.
Analysts have warned that North Korea could be testing cruise missiles ahead of sending them to Russia for use in Ukraine, with Washington and Seoul claiming Kim has shipped weapons to Moscow, despite rafts of UN sanctions banning any such moves.
‘North Korea could be using recent launches as a way to show Russians the capability of their missiles before sending them off to Moscow,’ Han Kwon-hee of Korea Association of Defence Industry Studies.
‘The need to do it could be especially acute given recent reports of North Korean shells going awry when used by Russian troops,’ he said.
On Friday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the military had ‘detected at around 11am (0200 GMT) the firing of multiple unidentified cruise missiles’ into the sea off the country’s west coast.
The South Korean military has ‘stepped up surveillance in close coordination with the United States’, the JCS said in the statement.
The military is ‘closely monitoring for signs of additional activity’ by the North Korean army, it said, adding they were ‘closely analysing’ the launch.
Unlike their ballistic counterparts, the testing of cruise missiles is not banned under current UN sanctions on Pyongyang.
Cruise missiles tend to be jet-propelled and fly at a lower altitude than more sophisticated ballistic missiles, making them harder to detect and intercept.
Even as Kim ramps up the rhetorical threats against the South, the testing spree plus suspected Russian arms deals indicate ‘a dog that barks but never bites,’ Kwon-hee said.
‘If he was really serious about a war, he wouldn’t have said it but kept it in the dark for a surprise attack. He also wouldn’t have sold arms to Russia if he were really into going to war with the South.’
The latest launch follows Kim Jong Un inspecting warships at a naval shipyard as he looks to bolster his maritime forces as part of ‘war preparations’, state media said Friday.
‘The strengthening of the naval force presents itself as the most important issue in reliably defending the maritime sovereignty of the country and stepping up the war preparations at present,’ Kim said at the Nampho Dockyard, according to the Korean Central News Agency.
READ FULL ARTICLE
SOURCE: www.dailymail.co.uk
RELATED: North Korea tests more cruise missiles as leader Kim calls for war readiness
South Korea’s military said North Korea has fired multiple cruise missiles into waters off its western coast, extending a provocative series of weapons tests in the face of deepening tensions with the United States, South Korea and Japan
A South Korean army’s K-9 self-propelled howitzer fires during a military exercise in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Friday, Feb. 2, 2024. South Korea’s military said it detected North Korea firing multiple cruise missiles into waters off its western coast Friday, adding to a provocative run of weapons testing in the face of deepening tensions with the United States, South Korea and Japan. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Published February 2, 2024
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea on Friday extended a provocative series of weapons tests by firing cruise missiles into the sea, as leader Kim Jong Un called for his military to step up war preparations and toured a shipyard.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the U.S. and South Korean militaries were analyzing the North Korean launches into its western sea. It said South Korea’s military detected multiple missiles but it did not immediately provide a specific number or an assessment of their flights.
The launches, which were North Korea’s fourth round of cruise missile tests in 2024, came hours after state media reported that Kim reiterated his focus on strengthening his naval forces as he inspected unspecified naval projects at a shipyard in Nampho on the west coast.
Kim in recent months has emphasized efforts to build a nuclear-armed navy to counter what he portrays as growing external threats posed by the United States, South Korea and Japan, which have stepped up their military cooperation in response to Kim’s nuclear weapons and missile program.
North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency did not specify when Kim visited Nampho. It paraphrased Kim as saying that the strengthening of the navy “presents itself as the most important issue in reliably defending the maritime sovereignty of the country and stepping up the war preparations.”
KCNA did not specify the types of warships are being built in Nampho, but said they were related to a five-year military development plan set during a ruling party congress in early 2021. During those meetings, Kim revealed an extensive wish list of advanced military assets, which included nuclear-powered submarines and nuclear missiles that can be launched from underwater.
READ FULL ARTICLE
SOURCE: www.abcnews.go.com
RELATED: Analysts: North Korea Seeks to Dominate South Korea Through Nuclear Coercion
This picture taken on Jan. 28, 2024, and released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency on Jan. 29 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspecting a test-fire of the submarine-launched strategic cruise missile.
Published January 30, 2024
WASHINGTON — Several prominent analysts are voicing doubts about a widely cited article concluding that North Korea has decided to wage war against South Korea, suggesting that Pyongyang’s provocative military buildup is more likely intended to win control over the South through intimidation.
North Korea test-fired another round of cruise missiles off its west coast on Tuesday, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. This was the third cruise missile launch since Jan. 14, when the regime tested a hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile.
Two days after the Jan. 14 launch, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared an end to his country’s policy of seeking reunification with South Korea and ordered his nation to be ready to occupy South Korea if war breaks out.
Two leading North Korea watchers wrote earlier this month that they believe Kim has already made a strategic decision to go to war against the South.
Robert Carlin and Siegfried Hecker, both with the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California, said they believe Kim made the decision after determining that attempts to normalize relations with the U.S. have failed. They said Kim suffered “a traumatic loss of face” when then-President Donald Trump walked out of a Hanoi summit in 2019.
Carlin, a former chief of the Northeast Asia Division at the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, and Hecker, a former director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, published their Jan. 11 article on 38North, a website focused on North Korea.
READ FULL ARTICLE
SOURCE: http://www.voanews.coml
