Tension is rising again in the region. North Korea fired several cruise missiles towards the Yellow Sea on Friday February 2, according to the South Korean army, continuing its weapons tests at a time when the country claims to be intensifying its “war preparations”.
“The military detected multiple unidentified cruise missiles around 11:00 a.m. (02:00 GMT),” fired toward the sea off the west coast of the peninsula, said the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff, which said to closely monitor “any new signs of additional activity” in North Korea. This is the third series of cruise missile launches by North Korea this week, amid escalating tensions between Seoul and Pyongyang.
On Tuesday, North Korea test-fired what it described as a strategic cruise missile. Two days earlier, leader Kim Jong Un personally oversaw a test of what Pyongyang claimed were two new-generation cruise missiles launched from a submarine. In January, North Korea had already announced that it had tested an “undersea nuclear weapons system” and a solid-fuel hypersonic ballistic missile, after a year 2023 marked by numerous weapons tests.
“New giant plan”
Tests of cruise missiles, which fly in the atmosphere, do not fall under UN sanctions on North Korea. And this unlike ballistic missiles, whose trajectory takes place essentially in space. Cruise missiles fly at a lower altitude than ballistic projectiles, making them more difficult to detect and intercept.
North Korea may be testing cruise missiles intended to be exported to Russia for use in the war against Ukraine, analysts say. South Korea and the United States maintain that despite UN sanctions, the North is sending weapons to Russia, possibly in exchange for technical assistance with its spy satellite program.
“Intensify war preparations”
Separately, Kim Jong Un visited the Nampho shipyard, 65 km southwest of Pyongang, where he called for a strengthening of the North Korean navy “to reliably defend the maritime sovereignty of the country and intensify war preparations,” KCNA, the official North Korean news agency, said on Friday.
The North Korean leader recently designated South Korea as the “main enemy”, dissolved government agencies dedicated to reunification and contacts with Seoul, while threatening to declare war if his neighbor encroaches on his territory “do not would it be 0.001 mm”.
In recent weeks, the two enemy countries have renounced agreements reached in 2018 to prevent armed incidents, strengthened their military presence on the border and carried out live artillery exercises near each other’s territory. Pyongyang regularly accuses South Korea and the United States of preparing an invasion of its territory.
During his visit to Nampho, Kim Jong Un received information on a “giant new plan” decided by the One Party regarding naval forces, according to KCNA, which provided no details on the content of the plan in question.
A nuclear-powered submarine was on the list of strategic weapons desired by North Korea at a major one-party congress in 2021, along with a hypersonic warhead, spy satellites and intercontinental ballistic missiles at solid fuel.
In 2023, North Korea launched what it called its first “tactical nuclear attack submarine.” The South Korean military said at the time that the submersible did not appear operational, and analysts believed it was a modified version of a diesel-electric submarine designed in the 1950s. , questioning his abilities.