It becomes a habit. It was accompanied by his daughter that Kim Jong-un personally oversaw North Korea’s last missile launch. The machine, launched Thursday towards the Sea of Japan was, the official KCNA news agency said on Friday, a Hwasong-17, one of the most recent models developed by Pyongyang and capable, according to analysts, of to reach American soil.
This is the sixth time since the beginning of the year that Pyongyang has tested its ballistic missiles. The latest launch took place on Tuesday with the firing of two short-range devices.
A Hwasong-17 that has traveled 1,000 km
Unsurprisingly, it is once again the holding of joint military maneuvers, “Freedom Shields” conducted by Seoul and Washington since Monday, which motivates this new show of force. Thursday’s shootings are indeed, according to KCNA, a response to “frenzied” US-South Korean military exercises.
Still according to the same source, the missile was launched from Pyongyang International Airport and reached an altitude of 6,045 km. It traveled 1,000 km for just over an hour before successfully hitting the target area in the East Sea. The launch “confirms the war readiness of the ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile, editor’s note) unit”, KCNA said, adding that the launch “had no negative impact on the security of neighboring countries”. . In fact, shortly before this confirmation, Seoul had indicated that the missile had followed a lobed trajectory, typically chosen to avoid flying over other countries.
Photos published by the official daily “Rodong Sinmun” show Kim Jong-un using binoculars and observing the black and white projectile soaring into the sky. They also show the North Korean leader with his daughter – never named by state media but identified as his second child, Ju-ae, by South Korean intelligence – examining photographs showing Earth from space, allegedly taken by a camera mounted on the missile.
But this umpteenth show of force on the part of the North Korean regime does not seem to have to bend the determination of Washington and its allies to maintain the pressure. “Despite the missile launches into the ocean, North Korea is not attacking, nor should it be. The United States, Japan, South Korea and other allies and partners in the region will continue to work together to extend this deterrence and keep our countries safe,” the spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Security said Thursday. Defense, Brigadier General Pat Ryde. “I think what’s important for the people to understand is that the deterrence continues to work. »