A suspected hypersonic missile launched by North Korea exploded in mid-air on Wednesday, according to South Korea’s military. This development comes as North Korea protests the regional deployment of a U.S. aircraft carrier for a trilateral military exercise with South Korea and Japan.
The missile was launched from the North’s capital region around 5:30 a.m. and was aimed towards the North’s eastern waters before it failed, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff stated.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff later reported that the missile blew up while flying off the North’s eastern coastal city of Wonsan. Missile fragments were scattered in the water, up to 250 kilometres (155 miles) from the launch site. No damages were immediately reported.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff suspected the weapon was a solid-fuelled hypersonic missile, and the test was aimed at improving its capacity. The launch generated more smoke than usual, possibly due to an engine fault, they said. The details of the background briefing given to South Korean journalists were shared with foreign media.
The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command condemned the launch and reaffirmed the U.S. commitments to the defence of South Korea and Japan as “ironclad.”
In a trilateral phone call, senior diplomats from South Korea, the U.S., and Japan condemned the North’s missile launch as a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions and a threat to international peace. They agreed to maintain close trilateral coordination, according to South Korea’s Foreign Ministry.
Since 2021, North Korea has conducted a series of hypersonic missile tests in an apparent bid to develop the capability to penetrate its rivals’ missile defence systems. However, foreign experts question whether North Korean hypersonic vehicles have demonstrated their desired speed and manoeuvrability during test flights. In recent years, North Korea has also been working to develop more weapons with solid propellants, which make launches harder to detect than liquid-propellant missiles that must be fuelled before liftoff.
The launch also occurred amidst Cold War-style psychological campaigns between the rival Koreas, such as balloons and loudspeaker broadcasts.
South Korea reported that North Korea floated large balloons carrying rubbish across the border on Tuesday night, marking its sixth such campaign since late May. About 100 North Korean balloons with bags of paper waste reportedly fell on South Korean territory.
Incheon International Airport, South Korea’s largest and about an hour’s drive from the inter-Korean border, suspended takeoffs and landings for three hours early Wednesday, the second such disruption since the North’s balloon activities began on May 28, according to South Korean aviation authorities.
North Korea claims its balloon launches are a tit-for-tat response to South Korean activists flying political leaflets via their own balloons. On June 9, South Korea briefly restarted propaganda broadcasts from its border loudspeakers for the first time in years in response. South Korea’s military said on Monday it was prepared to turn on its loudspeakers again.
The USS Theodore Roosevelt arrived in South Korea on Saturday, and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol boarded the aircraft carrier on Tuesday — the first sitting South Korean president to do so since 1994.
Yoon told American and South Korean troops on the carrier that their countries’ alliance is the world’s greatest and can defeat any enemy. He said the U.S. carrier would depart on Wednesday for the South Korea-U.S.-Japan drill, dubbed “Freedom Edge.” The exercise aims to enhance the countries’ combined response capabilities in various operational areas, including air, sea, and cyberspace.
North Korea’s vice defence minister, Kim Kang Il, on Monday called the U.S. aircraft carrier’s deployment “reckless” and “dangerous.” North Korea has previously labelled major U.S.-South Korean drills as invasion rehearsals and responded with missile tests.
Seoul officials said the upcoming South Korea-U.S.-Japan training aims to strengthen the three countries’ response capabilities against North Korea’s evolving nuclear threats, at a time when the North is advancing its military partnerships with Russia.
During a summit in Pyongyang last week, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a deal requiring each country to provide aid if attacked and vowed to boost other forms of cooperation. Observers say the accord represents the strongest connection between the two countries since the end of the Cold War.
The United States and its partners believe North Korea has been providing Russia with much-needed conventional arms for its war in Ukraine in return for military and economic assistance.
North Korea’s reported missile launch is its first weapons demonstration since Kim Jong Un supervised the firing of nuclear-capable multiple rocket launchers to simulate a pre-emptive attack on South Korea on 30 May.
Since 2022, North Korea has sharply increased the pace of weapons tests to boost its nuclear attack capabilities in response to what it perceives as a deepening U.S. military threat. Foreign experts say North Korea eventually aims to use its larger nuclear arsenal to gain greater concessions from the U.S. when diplomacy resumes.
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