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The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) blasted a missile over Japan in the early hours of Friday, which reached a distance of 3,700 kilometers before falling into the Pacific, prompting a global uproar.
The reach of the latest launch has brought the focus back on the US Pacific territory of Guam, which sits 3,400 kilometers from Pyonyang, and has often been a target of DPRK's saber-rattling.
The missile reached an altitude of about 770 kilometers and flew for about 19 minutes over a distance of about 3,700 kilometers before it fell in the Pacific, according to Republic of Korea (ROK) military – far enough to reach Guam.
The Pentagon confirmed the missile fired was an intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM) and said it did not pose any threat to North America.
Guam's Homeland Security also asserted that Friday's missile launch posed no threat to the island. "The launch was detected out of Sunan, North Korea (DPRK) and determined not to be a threat to Guam or the Marianas," Guam Homeland Security/Office of Civil Defense said in a statement.
“The launch does not come as a surprise rather, it reminds us to always keep our emergency plans in place,” it added.
A general view shows the entrance to Andersen Air Force Base at Yigo in Guam on August 15, 2017.
/AFP Photo
Guam was specifically threatened by DPRK in 2013 and again last month, following a fiery exchange of threats and rhetoric between US President Donald Trump and the DPRK government.
The small island in the Western Pacific is the closest US territory to DPRK and hosts two important US military installations. One is Andersen Air Force Base, from which the US has been staging B-1 bomber flights over the Korean Peninsula, often in response to Pyongyang's missile tests.
The US flew bombers over DPRK following Pyongyang's two successful tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles in July.
ROK responds with missile launch
Meanwhile Republic of Korea (ROK) President Moon Jae-in convened a National Security Council (NSC) meeting as the military conducted ballistic missile training in the East Sea in response to the Pyongyang's latest provocation.
The military fired the Hyunmoo-II missile with the range to reach DRPK's Sunan airfield, which is the "origin of provocation," the ROK's Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
The quick response represents the military's combat readiness, it said in a statement.
UNSC to hold emergency meeting
The latest provocation by Pyongyang drew immediate condemnation from the global community, with the UN Security Council announcing it will hold an emergency meeting on Friday over the missile launch.
The US and Japan requested the meeting, which will be held at 1900 GMT, according to the Ethiopian council presidency. The meeting will be closed-door, diplomats said.
Pyongyang's latest launch came after the Security Council imposed an eighth set of sanctions on DPRK over its ballistic missile and nuclear weapons program.
DPRK had on Wednesday vowed to accelerate its weapons program in response to being slapped with the "evil" sanctions.
"Dangerous provocative action"
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (C) answers questions at his official residence in Tokyo on September 15, 2017. / AFP Photo
Japan was jolted awake in the early hours of Friday by alarms ringing as the word spread that the DPRK had blasted yet another missile over its northern island of Hokkaido, the second such launch in less than a month.
Warning announcements about the missile blared around 7 am (2200 GMT Thursday) in the town of Kamaishi, northern Japan, footage from national broadcaster NHK showed.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that Japan would "never tolerate" what he called DPRK's "dangerous provocative action that threatens world peace" following the missile launch over his country.
"We can never tolerate that North Korea (DPRK) trampled on the international community's strong, united resolve toward peace that has been shown in UN resolutions and went ahead again with this outrageous act," Abe told reporters.
"If North Korea continues to walk down this path, it has no bright future. We must make North Korea understand this," he added.
Meanwhile, the United States called on China and Russia to take "direct actions" to rein in the DPRK after it fired a ballistic missile over Japan into the Pacific.
"China supplies North Korea (DPRK) with most of its oil. Russia is the largest employer of North Korean forced labor," Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in a statement.
"China and Russia must indicate their intolerance for these reckless missile launches by taking direct actions of their own."
DPRK’s latest provocation came amid high tensions over its banned weapons programs and just two weeks after it had launched a Hwasong-12 (KN17 in US appellation) intermediate range missile, which also overflew Japan, on August 29.
US identifies new DPRK missile
This picture from DPRK's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) taken on August 29, 2017 and released on August 30, 2017 shows DPRK's intermediate-range strategic ballistic rocket Hwasong-12 lifting off from the launching pad at an undisclosed location near Pyongyang. /AFP Photo
Amid the widespread outrage over DPRK’s missile launches, new US military intelligence suggests Pyongyang might have developed a new variant of missiles.
On August 26, prior to its launch of a Hwasong-12 over Japan, DPRK had launched three missiles, which had remained unidentified, or misidentified, so far.
However, a new US military intelligence appears to have identified and designated these missiles as a new type of DPRK’s short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) and a modification of its existing Scud-B (Hwasong-5 in DPRK appellation) missiles, according to a report by the Tokyo-headquartered The Diplomat magazine. The US has designated the new missiles as KN21.
“Three units of the ballistic missiles in question, which have been newly designated the KN21 by the United States, were tested on August 26 in quick succession from North Korea’s (DPRK’s) missile launch site at Kittaeryong,” The Diplomat reported quoting US government sources with knowledge of the latest US intelligence assessments.
DPRK launched those missiles at a depressed trajectory intentionally, according to a US government source. The SRBMs were launched around early morning from a site in Gangwon Province, with the second one appeared to have blown up almost immediately while another two flew about 250 kilometers in a northeastern direction, before crashing into the Sea of Japan.
The missiles had first been incorrectly assessed by the US Pacific Command (PACOM) to have all failed. PACOM later revised its assessment. Intelligence agencies from Republic of Korea (ROK) wrongly identified the missiles as projectiles from a KN09 multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) – an assessment likely based on the fact that these were unitary, non-separating Scuds with an unusual trajectory.
Given that the August 26 launches were of three projectiles launching exactly 10 minutes apart, The Diplomat reported that the test was most likely for developmental purposes. The SRBMs that were tested had “similar guidance capabilities as the KN18,” the report quoted a US government source as saying.
This undated photo released by DPRK's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on August 26, 2017 shows DPRK leader Kim Jong Un (C) presiding over a target strike exercise conducted by the special operation forces of the Korean People's Army (KPA) at an undisclosed location. the DPRK fired three short-range ballistic missiles on August 26. /AFP Photo
DPRK has not released any imagery of its August 26 SRBM launches, but the missiles are thought to also possess control surfaces (fins) on the warhead, like the KN18.
The KN18 is a SRBM with a maneuvering reentry vehicle (MaRV). The DPRK first displayed the KN18 at its annual military parade in Pyongyang on April 16, 2017, where the missile was seen carried on a tracked transporter erector launcher. Its first known flight test occurred on May 28, 2017. An apparent success, the missile flew around 450 kilometers before landing in the Sea of Japan.
This year’s introduction of the KN18 and KN21 suggests that DPRK’s missile engineers are making important upgrades to the country’s considerable existing inventory of older Scuds to make them more useful war-fighting tools.
“Between the KN18 and the KN21, North Korea (DPRK) has now shown itself capable of converting its less accurate, older Scuds to what appear to be considerably more precise systems. In any future conflict, these sorts of comparatively more precise Scuds would be useful in targeting US and South Korean military positions and command/control nodes on the Peninsula with nuclear and conventional payloads,” The Diplomat said.
(CGTN)
