On Friday, North Korean state media reported that North Korea successfully test-fired its latest surface-to-air missile system. The test was conducted just after South Korea and the United States wrapped up their annual joint military drills.
According to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un watched the launch the previous day of the anti-aircraft missile system that was recently put into full-scale production.
North Korea said the test-firing was aimed at examining the “comprehensive performance” of the system, claiming that it proved the missile’s combat-fast response is “advantageous” and “highly reliable”.
Photos released alongside the report showed what appeared to be a launched missile hitting a target and exploding, and Kim smiled contentedly, apparently at the test result.
Kim said the country’s army would be equipped with “another major defence weapons system with laudable combat performance,” expressing gratitude to the research group in charge and relevant munitions industry enterprises for strengthening national defence capability, the KCNA said.
Yonhap news agency reported that South Korea’s military informed that they had detected the launch of multiple surface-to-air missiles in real-time from the North’s western port city of Nampho the previous day, adding that further analysis is underway.
The launch took place at around 9 a.m. before South Korea and the US announced the completion of their annual springtime Freedom Shield exercise after an 11-day run, a Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) official said.
Another military official said North Korea is presumed to have used a cruise missile as a mid-air target for the latest test of the surface-to-air missile.
“An anti-aircraft or surface-to-air missile is used for defensive purposes. But since a cruise missile can be used for attacks against us, we are focusing more on such an aspect,” the official told reporters.
North Korea has denounced the joint drills as a rehearsal for invasion and has a track record of staging weapons tests in protest, but it did not carry out major provocations this year.
South Korea issued a warning against North Korea’s additional provocations. In a regular press briefing. Kim In-ae, deputy spokesperson at Seoul’s Unification Ministry, said, “I once again make clear that our military training is an annual and defensive exercise to deter war and guard peace, North Korea should not make the wrong judgment of using the exercise as a pretext for provocation.”
In previous years, the militarization of the Korean peninsula has increased, and the era of power politics has come. The alliances in the region are also being strengthened, and the regular military drills have also increased due to a potential security dilemma between China and North Korea on one side and the US, South Korea and Japan on the other side. North Korea’s regular tests of Nuclear weapons, missile technologies and advanced weaponry have created a sense of fear near the Korean Peninsula in the East China Sea and Yellow Sea.
