SEOUL, South Korea North Korea on Sunday fired what appeared to be the most powerful missile it has tested since President Joe Biden took office, as it revives its old playbook in brinkmanship to wrest concessions from Washington and neighbors amid a prolonged stalemate in diplomacy.
The Japanese and South Korean militaries said the missile was launched on a high trajectory, apparently to avoid the territorial spaces of neighbors, and reached a maximum altitude of 2,000 kilometers (1,242 miles) and traveled 800 kilometers (497 miles) before landing in the sea .
The flight details suggest the North tested its longest-range ballistic missile since 2017, when it twice flew intermediate-range ballistic missiles over Japan and, separately, three intercontinental ballistic missiles that demonstrated the potential to reach deep into the American homeland.
Sundays test was North Koreas seventh round of launchesthis month. Teaunusually fast pace of testsindicates its intent to pressure the Biden administration over long-stalled nuclear negotiations as pandemic-related difficulties put further stress on an economy broken by decades of mismanagement and crippling US-led sanctions
While desperate for outside relief, Kim has shown no willingness to surrender the nuclear weapons and missiles he sees as his strongest guarantee of survival. Analysts say Kims pressure campaign is aimed at forcing Washington to accept the North as a nuclear power and convert their nuclear disarmament-for-aid diplomacy into negotiations for mutual arms reduction.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in called an emergency National Security Council meeting where he described the test as a possible mid-range ballistic missile launch that brought North Korea to the brink of breaking its 2018 self-imposed moratorium on the testing of nuclear devices and longer-range missiles.
Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi also told reporters that the missile was the longest-range the North has tested since its Hwasong-15 ICBM in November 2017.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un chaired a ruling party meeting on Jan. 20, where senior party members made a veiled threat to lift the moratorium, citing what they perceived as US hostility and threats.
The latest launch suggestsKims moratoriumis already broken, said Lee Choon Geun, a missile expert and honorary research fellow at South Koreas Science and Technology Policy Institute.
In his strongest comments toward the North in years, Moon said the situation around the Korean Peninsula is beginning to resemble 2017, when North Koreas provocative run in nuclear and long-range missile testing resulted in an exchange of war threats between Kim and then-President Donald Trump.
Moon said the Norths latest moves violatedUN Security Council resolutionsand were a challenge toward the international communitys efforts to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, stabilize peace and find a diplomatic solution to the standoff.
The North should stop its actions that create tensions and pressure and respond to the dialogue offered by the international community including South Korea and the United States, Moon said, according to his office.
Moons efforts to reach out to North Korea derailed after the collapse of the second Kim-Trump meeting in 2019, when the Americans rejected North Koreas demand for major sanctions relief in exchange for a partial surrender of its nuclear capabilities.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said Sundays missile flew for around 30 minutes and landed in waters outside Japans exclusive economic zone. There were no immediate reports of damage to boats or aircraft.
The US Indo-Pacific Command said the United States condemned North Koreas testing activity and called on Pyongyang to refrain from further destabilizing acts. It said the latest launch did not pose an immediate threat to US personnel, territory, or that of our allies.
Takehiro Funakoshi, director-general for Asian and Oceanian Affairs at Japans Foreign Ministry, discussed the launch in separate phone calls with Sung Kim, Bidens special envoy for North Korea, and Noh Kyu-duk, South Koreas nuclear envoy. The officials shared an understanding that Sundays missile was of enhanced destructive power and reaffirmed trilateral cooperation in the face of the North Korean threat, Japans Foreign Ministry said.
Experts say the North could halt its testing spree after the start of the Beijing Winter Olympics next week out of respect for China, its major ally and economic lifeline. But theres also expectation that it could significantly up the ante in weapons demonstrations once the Olympics end in February to grab the attention of the Biden administration, which has been focusing more on confronting China and Russia over its conflict with Ukraine.
North Korea is launching a frenzy of missiles before the start of the Beijing Olympics, mostly as military modernization efforts. Pyongyang also wants to boost national pride as it gears up to celebrate political anniversaries in the context of economic struggles, said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.
It wants to remind Washington and Seoul that trying to topple it would be too costly. By threatening stability in Asia while global resources are stretched thin elsewhere, Pyongyang is demanding the world compensate it to act like a responsible nuclear power, Easley added.
The US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said Washington had imposed sanctions against North Korea in the past few weeks and was looking at other options.
We are open to having diplomatic discussions. We have offered this over and over to the DPRK. And they have not accepted it, Thomas-Greenfield said on ABCs This Week.
Our goal is to end the threatening actions that the DPRK is taking against their neighbors, she said, referring to North Koreas formal name, the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea.
North Korea has justified its testing activity as an exercise of its right to self-defense. It has threatened stronger action after the Biden administration imposed fresh sanctions following two tests of a purportedhypersonic missileearlier this month.
