North Korea tests longest-range missile since 2017

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By KIM TONG-HYUNG and MARI YAMAGUCHI

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — 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.

Sunday’s test was North Korea’s seventh round of launches this month. The unusually fast pace of tests indicates 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 U.S.-led sanctions over its nuclear weapons program.



People watch a TV showing a file image of North Korea's missile launch during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, Jan. 30, 2022. North Korea on Sunday fired what appeared to be the most powerful missile it has tested since U.S. 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. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/north-korea-tests-longest-range-missile-since-biden-started-37f273d0602f91d392d32b6c0d4002ee

[Deuce]

1. For some reason, this just doesn't bother me...

[soryang]

2. Poorly considered moves by North Korea

There is no provision in UN resolutions for sanctions as a result of anything less than a an intercontinental ballistic missile test. The UN resolutions were intentionally constructed this way, or China and Russia wouldn’t have agreed to them. North Korea ballistic missile launches are generally proscribed in the resolutions, but this seems somewhat hypocritical as range and payload restrictions were recently relaxed on South Korean ballistic missiles by the US and South Korea is well into development of its submarine launched ballistic missile weapon system. US strategic bombers fly off the East Sea/Sea of Japan coast of Japan periodically, there were two such missions in the last couple of months as I recall. Japan has recently indicated it will purchase or develop cruise missiles with longer ranges for submarine launch. A US ssbn arrived in Guam January 17.

President Moon of South Korea is very critical of these missile tests. North Korea is hurting its prospects for diplomacy and improved relations by conducting missile tests before the March 9 presidential elections in South Korea. By doing this it is playing right into the hands of the authoritarian forces at work in South Korea presently, and distracting the public there from the disclosures of corruption and wrong doing as the conservative election campaign of Yoon Seok-yeol proceeds. By undermining the democratic administration in South Korea presently, the North’s government such as it is damages its own prospects of some kind of diplomatic breakthrough. At the very least it should stand down until the future government of South Korea is determined. These tests show that the North Korean leadership doesn’t understand the delicate political situation playing out in South Korea and by extension Northeast Asia. This really is an outsized blunder.