North Korea fired “unidentified projectile” in Sea of ​​Japan

New provocation from North Korea. The country ruled by dictator Kim Jong Un has “fired an unidentified projectile in the Sea of ​​Japan”, indicates this Tuesday the Joint Staff of Seoul in a press release sent to AFP. No other details – including the type of device, the distance traveled and the possible existence of several projectiles – were disclosed.

This announcement comes in an already tense context. On Monday, the official North Korean agency KCNA had notably notified test shots of a new “long-range cruise missile” over the weekend, evoking “strategic weapons of great importance”. The government official daily, Rodong Sinmun, published in the wake of the photos showing a missile exiting like a fireball from one of the five tubes of a launch vehicle as well as another missile making a flight to the. horizontal. The projectiles would have traveled 1,500 kilometers, during two-hour flight paths, tracing eight, over North Korea and its territorial waters to reach their targets, said KCNA.

If Pyongyang is confirmed to have them, these long-range cruise missiles would represent a huge technological breakthrough for North Korea. More difficult to intercept, they would pose a real threat to South Korea and Japan, two allies of the United States, analysts say.

Japan also announced earlier this week its “extreme concern” through the voice of the government spokesperson, Katsunobu Kato. According to him, these latest developments would constitute a “serious threat to the peace and security of Japan and the surrounding region”. As described, these new missiles represent “a considerable threat”, confirms Park Won-gon, specialist in North Korea at Ewha Womans University. “If the North has sufficiently miniaturized the heads of its nuclear missiles, they can also be loaded onto cruise missiles”, he warns.

Several United Nations Security Council resolutions prohibit North Korea from continuing its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs. But, although hit by multiple international sanctions, this country has rapidly developed its military capabilities in recent years under the leadership of Kim Jong Un. It should be noted that the development of cruise missiles is not affected by UN bans.