Tag: missile test

North Korea just could not help itself and desperately had to make a headline since Vice President Harris will be in Seoul later this week:

North Korea fired a short-range ballistic missile into the East Sea on Sunday, South Korea’s military said, two days after a nuclear-powered U.S. aircraft carrier arrived here for allied drills.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected the launch from an area in or around Taechon, North Pyongan Province, at 6:53 a.m., and that it flew some 600 kilometers at an apogee of around 60 km at a top speed of Mach 5.

The intelligence authorities of the South and the United States are conducting a detailed analysis for other details, the JCS said.

The launch came as U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris plans to visit Seoul later this week and the allies are set to hold a joint maritime exercise in the East Sea, involving the USS Ronald Reagan carrier strike group.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The North Korean sent off some fireworks after President Biden left the region:

 North Korea fired three ballistic missiles Wednesday morning off its eastern coast, prompting the United States and South Korea to respond with a show of force of their own launches.

North Korea’s missiles, fired hours after President Joe Biden wrapped up his first presidential trip to Seoul and Tokyo, came from the Sunan area, where the regime’s airport is located, according to the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. 

The three missiles were fired at 6 a.m., 6:37 a.m. and 6:42 a.m. The first, believed to be an intercontinental ballistic missile, flew roughly 224 miles at a peak altitude of 336 miles; the second “disappeared” at an altitude of 12 miles; and the third, believed to be a short-range ballistic missile, flew about 472 miles at an altitude of 37 miles, according to South Korea’s military.

Stars & Stripes

Here is what the US and the ROK did in response:

Following the launches, U.S. Forces Korea announced in an unsigned press release that it had fired surface-to-surface missiles toward its eastern coast “to demonstrate the ability of the combined [U.S.-South Korea] force to respond quickly to crisis events.”

USFK, which is responsible for roughly 28,500 troops on the Korean Peninsula, said in the release it used the Army’s Tactical Missile System and South Korea’s Hyunmu-2 missile system for the live-fire exercise.

South Korea’s military also conducted an armed exercise consisting of 30 South Korean F-15K jets, the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement Wednesday.

You can read more at the link, but the missile tests are what I thought was the most likely provocation the Kim regime would do. What to watch for next is a nuclear test. I think this will be tied to any increased rhetoric from the US and ROK condemning the North in the coming days. I guess we will see what happens.

It looks like the Kim regime is wasting no time testing the Yoon administration. It will be interesting to see what they do when President Biden visits South Korea later this month:

North Korea fired three short-range ballistic missiles toward the East Sea Thursday, the South Korean military said, in its first major provocation since the launch of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected the launches from the Sunan area of Pyongyang at 6:29 p.m., and the missiles flew some 360 kilometers at a top altitude of about 90 km.

The launch, the North’s 16th show of force this year, came despite speculation that the North may slow down its weapons tests as it reported its first COVID-19 case earlier in the day with the enforcement of the “maximum emergency” virus control system.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It appears the submarine that North Korea used to fire a missile from this weekend has not been in the best working condition:

The North Korean submarine that fired a ballistic missile from underwater Saturday was the one that had to be towed ashore due to an engine problem following an earlier missile test-firing in October last year, sources said Sunday.

The North is believed to have repaired the Gorae-class vessel since the Oct. 19 test-firing that also took place in waters off the country’s eastern coastal city of Sinpo, where the North’s main submarine shipyard is located.

Due to damage to its engine from the impact of the firing at the time, the 2,000-ton-class submarine could not move on its own and had to be towed by a tugboat to the Sinpo shipyard, according to military and intelligence authorities.

“Though the extent of the damage was not exactly determined, it was not in a condition where it could move on its own. It had to be towed,” a source said on condition of anonymity.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Besides the upcoming inauguration the Defense Chief nominee was testifying which may be the real reason why they fired this missile:

North Korea fired a ballistic missile toward the East Sea on Wednesday, South Korea’s military said, in the recalcitrant regime’s latest saber-rattling that comes less than a week before President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol’s inauguration.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected the launch from the Sunan area in Pyongyang at 12:03 p.m. and that the missile flew 470 kilometers at a top altitude of 780 km and speed of Mach 11.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The Kim regime appears to have waited by the Beijing Olympics to end before restarting their missile test program. They also appear to have no hesitation about starting provocations with an actual major war going on in Ukraine:

North Korea fired a ballistic missile toward the East Sea on Sunday, South Korea’s military said, in the recalcitrant regime’s eighth show of force this year.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected the launch from around the Sunan area in Pyongyang at 7:52 a.m., and that the missile flew about 300 kilometers at a top altitude of 620 km.

The latest launch, the first in just under a month, came 10 days ahead of South Korea’s presidential election and amid the armed conflict in Ukraine following Russia’s invasion of the country last week.

“For other specifics on the missile, the intelligence authorities of South Korea and the United States are conducting a detailed analysis,” the JCS said in a text message sent to reporters.

“Our military is tracking and monitoring related (North Korean) movements and maintaining a readiness posture,” it added. 

The North is presumed to have fired the missile from a Transporter Erector Launcher (TEL) at a steep angle from the Sunan airfield, informed sources said, raising speculation it could be a medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM). 

The missile appears to be similar to the Pukguksong-2 missile, a road-mobile solid-fuel MRBM, known to be the North’s ground-based variant of its submarine-launched ballistic missile, the Pukguksong-1, according to observers.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest on North Korea’s recent missile test:

 North Korea said Wednesday it has successfully conducted the “final” test-firing of a new hypersonic missile a day earlier as its leader Kim Jong-un called for the strengthening of the country’s “strategic military muscle both in quality and quantity” during an on-site inspection. 

“The superior maneuverability of the hypersonic glide vehicle was more strikingly verified through the final test-fire,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. “The test-fire was aimed at the final verification of overall technical specifications of the developed hypersonic weapon system.” 

The hypersonic glide vehicle demonstrated “glide jump flight,” “corkscrew maneuvering” and hit “the set target in waters 1,000 km off,” it added with regard to Tuesday’s launch. It marked the third known test-firing of what the secretive North claims to be a hypersonic missile, with the second one conducted last week.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the U.S. and ROK military are both still conducting analysis to determine if North Korea’s claims are true.

Here is what the ROK military had to say about North Korea’s recent missile launch:

North Korea’s ballistic missile launched Tuesday flew at a top speed of Mach 10, South Korea’s military said, taking note of “improvement” compared with what it claimed to be a hypersonic missile test six days ago.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said the North fired the missile from its northern province of Jagang into the East Sea, and that it flew more than 700 kilometers at a maximum altitude of 60 km and at a top speed of Mach 10, 10 times the speed of sound.

The launch was detected at 7:27 a.m, the JCS said. It followed the test-firing of the North’s self-proclaimed hypersonic missile, which the JCS said traveled less than 700 km at a top speed of Mach 6.

“We assess that it has improved compared with the ballistic missile launched on Jan. 5,” the JCS said in a text message, calling the regime’s continued launches of ballistic missiles a “clear” violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the improved speed to mach 10 does not necessarily mean this was a hypersonic missile. The ROK JCS says they are still doing analysis of the launch.