Updated at 15:00 and 16:35 KST: This article has been updated to include further assessments from the South Korean military, as well as commentary from three experts. It was later updated to include additional comments from a JCS official.
North Korea on Monday test-fired two short-range ballistic missiles, South Korea’s military said, the first such launch by the country this year.
The projectiles were fired from Wonsan on the country’s east coast around 12:37 local time, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) reported, and headed towards the Sea of Japan, known in Korea as the East Sea.
“Our military is maintaining the readiness posture while tracking and monitoring the relevant movement in preparation for additional launch,” the statement added.
South Korea’s military assessed that Monday’s test marked a continuation of that exercise, and that the projectiles in question traveled 240 kilometers at a maximum altitude of 35 kilometers.
“Additional specifications are being analyzed by ROK-U.S. intelligence authorities,” the JCS said, adding that “North Korea’s such actions do not help to ease tensions on the Korean peninsula, and it is urged repeatedly to stop immediately.”
A later briefing by an unnamed JCS official to local press described the test as having been of “short-range ballistic missiles.”
Monday marks North Korea’s first missile test since November 28, when the country was reported to have conducted a “test-fire of super-large multiple rocket launchers [MRLs].”
“It sounds like they are starting off with something small and conventional in nature,” Joshua Pollack, a senior research associate at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, said, adding that South Korea’s assessment that the test represented a continuation of the weekend’s exercise “makes sense.”
“North Korea has presented missiles that fit this profile as ‘tactical’ and implicitly conventional in nature,” he said.
A ruling party plenum that month also saw DPRK leader Kim Jong Un promise the country would “steadily develop necessary and prerequisite strategic weapons” in the coming year, though he stopped short of ending an April 2018 self-declared moratorium on nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) testing.
North Korea’s borders have been effectively closed since late January, amid a nationwide campaign to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Concerns about the spread of that virus — known officially as COVID-19 — last week prompted ROK and U.S. military officials postpone plans to go ahead with a joint computer-simulated “command post training” exercise.
Monday’s test is North Korea’s first since November | Photo: KCTV
One expert said Monday’s test likely represented the kind of “operational training test” often undertaken by North Korea in March.
“Historically, in the Kim Jong Un era, March has been a reliable month for missile testing, especially as a response to U.S.-ROK drills,” Ankit Panda, an adjunct senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists, told NK News.
“This time, Kim is drawing a contrast, carrying on with normal defense drills even as allied exercises are suspended amid COVID-19,” he added, saying that current South Korean estimates suggested that the missile tested was a KN-23, “perhaps on a more depressed trajectory than normal.”
“We can be certain that the Trump administration will try to play down this incident, saying it’s not a big deal,” Andrei Lankov, a director at the Korea Risk Group — which owns and operates NK News — said.
“For the North Koreans it’s just a show of force and a reminder about their existence, and probably a way to get some useful technical information,” he added.
“Remember, these tests are not just about politics, they are about technology, too.”
Updated at 15:00 and 16:35 KST: This article has been updated to include further assessments from the South Korean military, as well as commentary from three experts. It was later updated to include additional comments from a JCS official.
North Korea on Monday test-fired two short-range ballistic missiles, South Korea's military said, the first such launch by the country this year.
Jeongmin Kim is a Lead Correspondent at NK News, based in Seoul. Kim covers inter-Korean and DPRK-related foreign, defense and humanitarian affairs, and has covered the 2022 ROK Presidential election on the ground. Prior to joining NK News, she worked for the CSIS Korea Chair in Washington D.C. and Reuters news agency's Seoul bureau. Follow her on Twitter @jeongminnkim