Search Results for: musudan

It looks like North Korea must have some confidence that they figured out what happened that caused the destruction of their last Musudan missile launch a couple of weeks ago because they are reportedly ready to try again:

North Korea appears to be readying to test-launch another intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) after the country botched its first attempt earlier in the month, government sources said Tuesday.

North Korea was initially detected to have loaded one or two IRBMs, known as Musudan, on the transporter erector launcher, near the country’s eastern port city of Wonsan, earlier in the month.

On April 15, one of the missiles was test-fired but reportedly blew up only a few seconds after lifting off.

“Signs have been detected that North Korea is trying to launch another Musudan missile after their failed launch that took place earlier on the birthday of (North Korean founder) Kim Il-sung,” one government source said.

“The remaining missile appears to be standing by for launch,” the source noted.

Another source added, “The military is picking up signs which indicate North Korea will likely launch the Musudan missile in the near future, and they are keeping close tabs on that.”  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

This makes the missile test failure even worse for the North Koreans if true:

North Korea’s failed launch of its Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missile last week sparked a huge fireball that damaged the launcher and could have also injured or killed missile technicians on the ground, a news report said Wednesday.

The missile blew up about 300 feet above the ground, shortly after Friday’s launch, and U.S. strategic defense surveillance systems, both airborne and space-based, videotaped the explosion, the Washington Free Beacon reported, citing U.S. defense officials.

Two road-mobile Musudan launchers were set up for the test, but the second was not fired after the explosion, the report said. It also cited a diplomatic source as saying that the likely cause of the explosion was a faulty fuel system or turbo pump failure.

The Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missile is an indigenous variant of the Russian SS-N-6 submarine-launched ballistic missile, known by Moscow as the R-27, which the North obtained covertly from Russia sometime in the 1990s, the report said.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

The North Koreans recently test for the first time their Musudan missile which has the potential range of targeting the US island of Guam:

North Korea conducted its first test-launch of the medium-range ballistic missile Musudan early Friday from its east coast, but the launch ended in failure, officials said.

“North Korea seems to have tried a missile launch from the East Sea area in the early morning today, but it is presumed to have failed,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

Sources said the launched missile was the Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), also known as the BM-25.

The missile lifted off at 5:30 a.m. but deviated from a “normal” trajectory, a JCS official told reporters.

After their joint assessment, South Korea and the United States concluded the launch as a failure, he added without elaborating further.

One military official said the IRBM disappeared from the South Korean side’s surveillance radar shortly after liftoff.

“It is highly likely that it may have exploded in the air. A further analysis is under way,” according to the official.

It was North Korea’s first test-launch of a Musudan missile, which the North is believed to have deployed against South Korea and other countries since 2007. The North has reportedly deployed some 30 Musudan missiles.  [Yonhap]

Reuters is reporting that it blew up on the launch pad which seems to contradict the ROK military saying that it fell off of their radar screens shortly after launch:

A U.S. government source told Reuters on Friday the missile never got off the launch pad, instead bursting into flames on the ground. It was not yet clear what caused the failure but further tests are expected, said the source, who asked not to be named.  [Reuters]

Whatever the failure was, this does not mean the North Koreans did not receive valuable data from this launch.  So hopefully people are not too quick to dismiss the North’s Musudan missile threat because of this one test.  It took them multiple launches to perfect their Taepodong-2 rocket technology which has had two straight successful launches putting objects into space.  If they continue to test the Musudan which I would think they will likely do, they are bound to figure out the errors that occurred in this test and perfect the technology.

I would think the term “patrols” used in the article would be referring to Japan’s Aegis ships that have ballistic missile defense capabilities.  It seems prudent for the Japanese to do this considering the possibility of the Musudan being fired over their country:

Japan says it is tightening patrols as a contingency against news that North Korea has deployed its Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missiles near Wonsan in Gangwon Province.

Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani told reporters Thursday that the possibility of an additional provocation by North Korea can’t be denied.

He said the Japanese government will continue to keep close tabs and do its best in patrolling and surveillance.

Speaking to reporters, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga also said the government was highly attentive to North Korea’s nuclear and missile issue and has been gathering and analyzing intelligence.

He said the Self-Defense Forces were also maintaining defense readiness.

When asked if Pyongyang could launch a missile on Friday, the birthday of late North Korean founder Kim Il-sung, Suga said the Tokyo government is aware and coordinating with South Korea and the U.S. on response measures. [KBS World Radio]

You can read more at the link.

This Yonhap report claims that the North Koreans currently have two Musudans deployed near Wonsan in preparation for a possible test fire this week.  This would be a significant test since the Musudan has never been tested before and is believed to have enough range to target Guam.  What would be even more provocative is if they fire this missile over Japan:

North Korea has deployed one or two Musudan mid-range ballistic missiles to near the eastern port city of Wonsan for a possible launch to mark its founding father’s birthday this week, government sources said Thursday.

“North Korea has been detected to have deployed a Musudan missile(s) in the vicinity of Wonsan’s Hodo Peninsula,” one source told Yonhap News Agency.

“After deploying them some 20 days ago, the North has not withdrawn them,” the source said. “Given the fact, North Korea is likely to venture a launch on the occasion of Kim Il-sung’s birthday.”

On Friday, North Korea marks the 104th birthday of the late North Korean founder and leader Kim Il-sun.

The North has celebrated the “Day of the Sun” with elaborate military events in the past, with experts predicting that the event for this year will be marked with a ballistic missile launch.

Other military sources said the missile or the missiles were loaded onto a transporter-erector-launcher or TEL, a mobile missile launcher.

If the launch takes place, it will be North Korea’s first test-launch of the intermediate-range ballistic missile also known as BM-25.

With a range of up to 4,000 kilometers, the missile could fly over South Korea and Japan to reach as far as Guam, where United States military forces are stationed.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest provocation from North Korea:

North Korea on Thursday fired two new short-range ballistic missiles, Seoul officials said, in an apparent move to put pressure on the United States ahead of possible nuclear talks between the two sides.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said that Pyongyang fired one missile toward the East Sea at around 5:34 a.m. and the other at 5:57 a.m. from Hodo Peninsula near its eastern coastal town of Wonsan. They flew around 430 kilometers and 690 km, respectively, both at an altitude of around 50 km. 

The test came 77 days after Pyongyang’s short-range missile launch in early May. (……..)

Experts have said Thursday’s launches appear to have involved the North’s version of Russia’s Iskander, a short-range, ground-to-ground ballistic missile known as KN-23, as it test-fired in May.

Yonhap

What is significant about the Iskander is that it is a solid fuel missile. What this means is that unlike a liquid fuel missile it does not need to be fueled before launching. The act of fueling missiles takes time and could be observed while a solid fuel missile can be simply rolled out and fired.

What About THAAD?

The Iskander also has a lower flight trajectory which gives it a shorter time of flight which reduces decision making time. In the article they claim the Iskander makes the THAAD system ineffective. The article fails to mention there are different missile defense systems for different threats. For lower flying trajectories that is what the Patriot missile batteries located around South Korea are for.

THAAD was never meant to be a magic bullet that engages all threats on the peninsula. THAAD engages targets at higher altitudes than Patriot. One of the main reasons it was deployed was because of the threat of lofted trajectory missiles that North Korea was testing.

Additionally, by using a lofted flight trajectory, North Korea could use medium-range and intermediate-range missiles to strike South Korean targets over shorter distances by firing them at higher angles. For example, on June 22, 2016, North Korea was able to limit the distance of the intermediate-range Musudan missile to around 400 kilometers (from a normal distance of more than 3,000 kilometers) by using this lofting method. In this scenario, the warhead is traveling at a high velocity by the end of its trajectory, thereby undermining the effectiveness of the Patriot missile system.

Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy

Now the North Koreans are testing a lower flying system that Patriot can engage, but once again it is not the flight profile that is of the most concern, it is the solid fuel capability that allows them rapidly fire these missiles with little early warning.

Why Test Now?

So why did the North Koreans fire this missile now? First of all the yet to be named joint US-ROK exercise is still scheduled to be executed next month. The exercise gives the Kim regime cover to conduct this test to further prove its capability. Additionally this keeps pressure on the Trump administration to give-in to North Korean demands to lift some of the sanctions in return for a freeze on missile testing.

Kim Jong-un has always said that he is waiting until the end of the year for a deal to be reached. If a deal is not reached he could restart ICBM testing. He is giving the Trump administration a preview of what he could start doing right in the middle of President Trump’s re-election campaign next year if a deal is not struck.

The media of course is going to try and hype this as if everyone on Guam is ready to evacuate the island not because of threats from Kim Jong-un, but because of President Trump:

Residents of the tiny Pacific island of Guam say they’re afraid of being caught in the middle of escalating tensions between the U.S. and North Korea after Pyongyang announced it was examining plans for attacking the strategically important U.S. territory.

Though local officials downplayed any threat, people who live and work on the island, which serves as a launching pad for the U.S. military, said Wednesday they could no longer shrug off the idea of being a potential target.

“I’m a little worried, a little panicked. Is this really going to happen?” said Cecil Chugrad, a 37-year-old bus driver for a tour bus company in Guam. “If it’s just me, I don’t mind, but I have to worry about my son. I feel like moving (out of Guam) now.”

Guam is used to the threats from North Korea but advances in the country’s nuclear program paired with fiery rhetoric from President Donald Trump has raised the already high animosity and heightened worries that a miscalculation might spark conflict between the nuclear-armed nations.  [Associated Press]

You can read more at the link, but North Korea has made threats to attack Guam before and that is why a THAAD missile defense battery was deployed to the island back in 2013.  The THAAD battery has a perfect test record and just recently conducted a flight test verifying it can intercept a North Korean Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile, the type they would use to attack Guam.

The people on Guam know they have the Army’s premier missile defense asset stationed there.  Additionally Kim Jong-un knows that an attack on Guam is an attack on America that will be met with regime change.  Bottom line is Kim Jong-un is not suicidal and the people of Guam are well protected regardless.

It looks like the North Koreans blew themselves up again:

US officials confirmed North Korea had attempted to launch a missile near Kalma, on the country’s east coast, but early reports suggest it failed.

“South Korea and the US are aware of the missile launch and to their knowledge North Korea’s missile was not successfully launched,” South Korea’s Ministry of Defense said in a statement.

Neither the US nor South Korea have released information on what type of missile was fired, or why it failed. The US Pacific Command said it was working with partners to assess it further.  [CNN]

This is a pretty significant development because a solid fuel missile on a mobile launcher would allow the North Koreans to launch with little to no indications or warning against targets in Japan with this missile:

South Korea’s military said Monday that North Korea appears to have employed technologies used in submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) to develop a new type of intermediate-range rocket, citing its analysis of a launch test carried out by Pyongyang a day earlier.

“North Korean leader Kim Jong-un likely ordered the task of developing a surface-to-surface Pukguksong-2 missile based on the successful SLBM test carried out in August. We have reached an assessment that the North is in the process of developing a ballistic missile with a greatly extended strike range,” an official from Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.

Pyongyang called the new missile Pukguksong-2. The SLBM launched in August carried the name Pukguksong-1, a name which translates as the “North Star.”

The remark came after the JCS initially identified the type of missile fired from Bangyon air base in the western province of North Pyongan Province at 7:55 a.m. as a medium-range Rodong or modified Rodong, and then changed their assessment to a modified Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM).

The missile reached a height of 550 kilometers after being fired at a high angle and flew about 500 km before splashing down into the East Sea.

As the launch was conducted in a “lofted” style, it put the missile into a high trajectory rather than a lower one that would allow it to fly much farther.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

I think it is more than coincidence that the Kim regime decided to interfere with President Trump’s and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s golf game this weekend by firing off this missile:

Pyongyang fired a missile into waters off its eastern coast Sunday morning, the first test-firing by North Korea this year and since U.S. President Donald Trump took office, according to the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Launched from Banghyon Air Base in North Pyongyan Province at 7:55 a.m., the missile reached an altitude of about 550 kilometers (342 miles) and flew 500 kilometers before splashing into the East Sea, both figures which indicate that it wasn’t an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), said an official from the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

It appears that the missile was a Rodong medium-range class meant to target Japan, according to another South Korean military source who spoke on the condition of anonymity.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

The Rodong or Nodong missile is a missile developed primarily to target Japan which is further evidence that the Trump-Abe meeting this week is why they fired the missile when they did.  With that said it is important to keep things in perspective.  The Nodong is a missile they have fired plenty of times in the past and this test firing was on a known test trajectory that safely impacted in the Sea of Japan.  If it wasn’t for the fact that it was North Korea test firing this missile most people would not care.

Here is how President Trump and Prime Minister Abe responded during a hastily called news conference at Trump’s golf club:

United States President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have condemned North Korea’s latest missile launch.

Trump and Abe issued their statements on the North’s surprise ballistic missile launch on Sunday during an unscheduled joint news conference in Florida.

Abe said that North Korea’s most recent missile launch is absolutely intolerable, urging the North to fully comply with relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions.

Trump said that he wants everybody to understand and fully know that the United States stands behind its great ally Japan 100 percent.  [KBS World]

Here is how the ROK has responded:

The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) denounced North Korea for its latest ballistic missile launch.

Following North Korea’s missile launch Sunday morning, the JCS issued a statement, calling the military action a “grave threat to peace and safety of South Korea and the international community.”

The JCS warned that the Kim Jong-un regime will only see its collapse unless it wakes up from the delusion of nuclear and missile provocations.

The JCS said the missile launch is unacceptable and the military is prepared to immediately respond to any North Korean provocation.

The South Korean military stressed that the missile launch came in violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions.  [KBS World]

I think the response was handled well by everyone because on the scale of North Korean provocations this is very low and people should not over react to it in my opinion which so far no one is appearing to do.