North Korea has launched a new type of ballistic missile that has landed in the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, prompting Tokyo to issue a strong protest and evacuate parts of its northern island of Hokkaido. The missile was launched from a location near the capital Pyongyang at a lofted angle, flew for about 1,000km, and then fell into the sea. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) described the launch as a “grave, provocative act”. South Korean broadcaster YTN said the missile test may have involved a new type of weapon displayed at recent military parades and was not ruling out the possibility that it was a solid-fuel missile. Japan issued a similar evacuation order last October when North Korea fired an intermediate-range missile over the country.
Pyongyang has carried out a record number of weapons tests in 2022 and has kept up the pace of development this year, framing its activity as a response to joint military drills between the US and South Korea that it claims are a rehearsal for invasion. Washington and Seoul say their drills are defensive in nature and arranged as a response to North Korea’s growing nuclear and missile threats. South Korean officials say North Korea has not been responding to their calls on a set of cross-border inter-Korean hotlines, designed to prevent accidental clashes, for about a week.
Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, said the situation on the peninsula was becoming increasingly unpredictable. “Pyongyang’s provocations continue past its protest of US-South Korea defense exercises because Kim Jong-un hasn’t finished demonstrating his nuclear delivery capabilities yet,” Easley said in an email. “However, with the North Koreans literally not answering the phone, the lack of hotlines and diplomacy increases the risk of unintended escalation.”
In a sign of heightened tensions, the North Korean official news agency KCNA quoted leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday calling for the strengthening of his country’s military in a “more practical and offensive manner”. Pyongyang’s meeting of the Central Military Commission was held on Monday in reaction to “the escalating moves of the US imperialists and the South Korean puppet traitors to unleash a war of aggression”, according to the KCNA.
Denuclearisation talks have been stalled since 2019 when a second high-profile summit between Kim and then US President Donald Trump collapsed. On Thursday, the White House urged North Korea to return to the table.
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