SEOUL, Nov 7 (Reuters) – North Korea said on Monday that its recent missile launches were practice attacks on South Korea and the US because the two countries were holding a “dangerous war drill.” The South, meanwhile, said it had found parts of a North Korean missile near its coast.
North Korea fired several missiles and hundreds of artillery shells into the sea last week as South Korea and the United States did air drills for six days that ended on Saturday. One of the missiles may have been a failed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
The North’s military said that the “Vigilant Storm” exercises were an “open provocation” and “a dangerous war drill with a very high aggressive nature.”
The North’s army said it had done things that looked like attacks on air bases, planes, and a major city in South Korea to “crush the enemies’ persistent war hysteria.”
North Korea, which has nuclear weapons, has launched more missiles than ever in a single day. This is part of a record number of missile tests this year.
South Korean and U.S. officials have also said that Pyongyang has made technical plans to test a nuclear device for the first time since 2017.
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Senior diplomats from the United States, Japan, and South Korea talked on the phone on Sunday and condemned the recent tests, including the “reckless” launch of a missile that landed off South Korea’s coast last week, according to a statement from the U.S. State Department.
On Monday, a member of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said that a South Korean ship had found pieces of that North Korean short-range ballistic missile (SRBM). was the first time a ballistic missile from North Korea landed near South Korean waters.
NEW: North Korean state media has released photos of its recent missile launches and artillery drills, including what appears to be a long-range ballistic missile and a previously unreported launch of a cruise missile.
More soon @nknewsorg pic.twitter.com/rpNEO1fWXW
— NK NEWS (@nknewsorg) November 6, 2022
An official said that the South Korean Navy rescue ship used an underwater probe to find the pieces, which are now being looked at.
Disputed Claims
The North Korean military said that on November 2, it fired two “strategic” cruise missiles toward South Korea’s Ulsan, a city on the southeast coast that has a nuclear power plant and a lot of factories.
South Korean officials said that was not true and that they had not seen any missiles near that area.
Analysts said that some of the photos released by North Korea’s state media seemed to be from launches earlier in the year.
The operations also included the launch of two “tactical ballistic missiles loaded with dispersion warheads,” a test of a “special functional warhead paralyzing the operation command system of the enemy,” and an “all-out combat sortie” with 500 fighter jets, according to a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency.
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Joseph Dempsey, a defense researcher at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said that 500 fighters would be almost all of the North’s dedicated combat aircraft, which seems unlikely since many of them have airframes that are 40–80 years old and are not all kept in service or in the active fleet.
“The 500 number seems too high or, at the very least, misleading,” he said in a tweet.
The South Korean military plans to hold additional drills from Monday to further prepare against North Korean threats.
The 2022 Taeguk Exercises come just as the U.S. and ROK wrapped up Vigilant Storm air exercises.https://t.co/WgFBTUyNCh
— NK NEWS (@nknewsorg) November 6, 2022
The General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army (KPA) accused Seoul and Washington of making a “more unstable confrontation” and promised to respond to their drills with “steadfast, resolute, and overwhelming practical military measures.”
In a statement, the KPA said, “The more often the enemies make provocative military moves, the more thoroughly and harshly the KPA will respond.”
New Missile
Analysts said that the photos released by state media seemed to show a new type or version of an ICBM that had not been reported before.
Ankit Panda, an expert on missiles at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said, “It’s not clear from what they said, but the design doesn’t match any we’ve seen before.”
ANALYSIS: North Korea is testing more missiles in a short span than ever before, but it’s more than just to be provocative.
Kim Jong Un seeks to achieve credible levels of military readiness amid the DPRK’s limited logistics.https://t.co/vc7OGrptdM
— NK NEWS (@nknewsorg) November 6, 2022
He said that the launch shown could have been a platform for testing missile subsystems, possibly including a vehicle for multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs), which let a single missile drop nuclear warheads on different targets.
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Panda said, “This is definitely the size of an ICBM.”
George William Herbert, an adjunct professor at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies and a missile consultant, said that the pictures showed what looked like a new nosecone on North Korea’s Hwasong-15 ICBM, which was first tested in 2017.
He said that the nosecone has a different shape and looks bigger than it needs to be for the 200- to 300-kiloton nuclear device that state media showed was tested in 2017.
Herbert said that the shape is better for a single big warhead than for a MIRV with several smaller ones.
Kim has asked for the creation of both bigger and smaller nuclear warheads that could be used in MIRVs or as tactical weapons.
