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N. Korea gets one step closer to ICBM development

Posted February. 14, 2017 07:07,   

Updated February. 14, 2017 07:14

한국어
The South Korean military said Monday that the North Korean missile launched a day earlier was a new intermediate-range ballistic missile using solid fuel. The military views that North Korea appears to have employed technologies used in submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) to develop a new type of missile with a longer range. Solid fuel-powered missiles are harder to detect than liquid fuel-based ones. Experts viewed the solid fuel-powered missile as a step forward in the North's development of inter-continental ballistic missiles, as their ranges can be extended by bundling their engines in a cluster. Pyongyang also showed off its ability to stably use the "cold launch" system for SLBM on ground-launched missiles for the first time.

The South Korean military also said it had detected for the first time a transporter erector launcher (TEL) on a caterpillar track at the launch site. North Korea had been observed to use wheeled TELs. North Korea cannot import TELs, which are designated as contraband items under international sanctions on the North. "It is possible that there was a hole in the North Korea sanctions," said a foreign affairs official in Seoul. "If the North produced the TEL on its own, that is a problem, too

The South Korean military caused confusion in identifying the North Korean missile on the day of the launch, initially saying that it was a Rodong-class missile, before changing its conclusion to "improved Musudan-class" and then to a "new IRBM." The North claimed that it tested the missile's interception-evading maneuver will likely rekindle the controversy over the South's planned deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system.

If Pyongyang makes further provocations, including an ICBM launch, against the Donald Trump administration, the situation could lead to a clash between Pyongyang and Washington. White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller, one of Trump's closest aides, told CBS on Sunday that the Trump administration will send another signal to North Korea "very soon," warning a hardline response to Pyongyang's missile launch.

Under such an urgent situation, there are concerns over whether South Korea, which is divided over President Park Geun-hye's impeachment and a consequent presidential election, can properly respond to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's dangerous game.

South Korea's Foreign Minister Yoon Byung-se told the National Assembly that the North's latest provocation is a "new level of provocation" that the international community takes seriously. He added that the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) would hold an emergency meeting on Tuesday morning (Korean time). The meeting is to be held at the request by South Korea, the United States and Japan. However, the UNSC will likely come up with nothing more than a media statement, which is equivalent to an international censure that cannot function as a punishment.



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