North Korea launches numerous cruise missiles, while hostility towards the South increases

North Korea fired several cruise missiles on Sunday , Seoul's military said, the latest in a series of moves to raise tension by the nuclear-armed state.

The launch comes just days after Pyongyang launched several cruise missiles towards the Yellow Sea, saying it was a first test of a new generation of strategic cruise missiles.
Pyongyang accelerated weapons tests in the new year, including tests of what it called an "undersea nuclear weapons system" and a solid-powered hypersonic ballistic missile.
“Our military detected several unidentified cruise missiles fired in the waters around North Korea's Sinpo area at 8am today,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a statement.

The JCS said the launch was being analyzed by intelligence authorities in South Korea and the United States, adding that it was "closely monitoring further movements and activities of North Korea."
Unlike their ballistic counterparts, testing of cruise missiles is not prohibited by current UN sanctions against Pyongyang, which has consistently ignored the sanctions anyway.

Cruise missiles tend to be jet-powered and fly at a lower altitude than more sophisticated ballistic missiles, making them harder to detect and intercept. The missile could be a Hwasal-2 with a range of 2000 km.
Earlier on Sunday, KCNA, North Korea's state media, denounced a series of military exercises conducted in recent weeks by US and South Korean troops, warning of "ruthless" consequences. It appears to many that North Korea is preparing military action .

North Korea said on Thursday it had carried out the first test of a new generation of strategic cruise missile it was developing, the Pulhwasal-3-31, a day early.
The test was “a process of constant updating of the weapon system and a regular and mandatory activity,” the KCNA said. He did not specify how many missiles were fired.
“The test had no impact on the security of neighboring countries and has nothing to do with the regional situation,” the agency said.

Recent months have seen a marked deterioration in ties between the two Koreas, with both sides abandoning key tension-reducing agreements, stepping up border security and conducting live-fire exercises along the border.
Earlier this month, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un declared the South to be his country's "main enemy," abandoned agencies dedicated to reunification and rapprochement, and threatened war for "even 0.001 mm ” of territorial violation.

In Seoul, President Yoon Suk-yeol told his cabinet that if the nuclear-armed North were to carry out a strong provocation, South Korea would respond with a response “several times stronger,” underlining its overwhelming response” from the army.
During Pyongyang's end-of-year political meetings, Kim threatened a nuclear attack against the South and called for increasing his country's military arsenal ahead of an armed conflict that he warned could "erupt at any moment," leading to activate a new nuclear reactor .

In January, the North launched a solid-fuel hypersonic missile, days after Pyongyang staged live-fire exercises near the tense maritime border with South Korea, which prompted counter-exercises and evacuation orders for some border islands belonging to the south.
Late last year, Kim also put a spy satellite into orbit after receiving what Seoul said was Russian help in exchange for arms transfers for Moscow's war in Ukraine.

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The article North Korea launches numerous cruise missiles, while hostility towards the South increases comes from Economic Scenarios .

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This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/corea-del-nord-lancia-missili-da-crociera-ostile-al-sud/ on Sun, 28 Jan 2024 10:00:47 +0000.