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Defense Minister Han orders military to check N.K’s long-range missile in real time

Defense Minister Han orders military to check N.K’s long-range missile in real time

Posted February. 06, 2016 07:18,   

Updated February. 06, 2016 07:27

한국어
South Korean Defense Minister Han Man-koo ordered the commanders of the Army, Navy and Air Force on Friday that the South Korean military should proactively cope with North Korea’s threat to launch a long-range missile.

Presiding over a crisis assessment meeting at the Defense Ministry headquarters in Yongsan, Seoul on the day, Han said that South Korean military personnel should maintain thorough preparedness both mentally and physically since North Korea's announced plan to carry out a satellite launch.

“The South Korean military should secure readiness to check and detect in real time signs of imminent launch and related situations,” Defense Minister Han said. “In order to minimize loopholes in monitoring, we will effectively operate reconnaissance capabilities of both South Korea and the U.S.” He also stressed that the South should prepare itself for the North's surprise launch of a missile on a day other than those that the North announced it would launch between Feb. 8 and Feb. 25.

Defense ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun said, “As the date (for launch) that the North Korean announced is drawing near, we are tracing and monitoring the possibility that significant progress has been made for launch.” However, since the North deployed large shades around the launch site at Dongchang-ni in North Hamgyong Province, it is reportedly difficult to monitor specific moves, including assembly of the rocket or installation of the launch pad, by using reconnaissance satellites.

The defense authorities of South Korea, the U.S. and Japan held an assistant minister-level video conference on the day and discussed plans on joint response to the North’s long-range missiles. At the meeting, the three countries agreed on prompt sharing of related information including trajectory and the drop zone of the propellant of the North Korean long-range missile when Pyongyang actually launches in line with their agreement to share such information, which they signed in late 2014.

Meanwhile, the South Korean Army released images of an actual firing drill of its next-generation multiple rocket launcher Cheonmu, which was conducted recently in a gesture of warnings to Pyongyang. The Cheonmu has a max range of 80 kilometers, twice that of the existing multiple rocket launcher Guryong (36 kilometers), offering a target error margin of less than 15 meters. Also, the launcher fires a cannonball that disperses into 300 pieces so that it can destroy an area three times the size of a soccer ground at once

Since its deployment at frontier military units near the Military Demarcation Line from August last year, the Cheonmu has been carrying out the mission to incapacitate the North’s Long Range Artillery. By the end of this year, it will be also deployed in northwestern islands in the Yellow Sea, including Baengnyeong and Yeonpyeong islands.