DPRK tests new high-tech missiles as Kim watches
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea said on Friday that its leader Kim Jong-un has guided the test launches of its newly developed precision guided missiles, in a possible reference to three short-range projectiles officials from the Republic of Korea say the DPRK fired toward its waters a day earlier.
ROK defense officials said the projectiles fired from an eastern port city on Thursday flew about 190 km before harmlessly landing into the waters off its east coast. The exact type of those projectiles and intentions of the DPRK weren't immediately known.
DPRK state media said on Friday that the country tested what it calls "cutting-edge ultra-precision tactical guided missiles" and Kim watched the tests with top deputies and was satisfied with the results.
There is virtually no way to independently confirm whether Pyongyang has developed such high-tech missiles.
Outside analysts say Pyongyang has developed a handful of crude nuclear devices and is working toward building a warhead small enough to mount on a long-range missile, although most experts say that goal may take years to achieve.
The DPRK didn't say when the latest launches took place or how many missiles were fired, but they are likely the projectiles that Seoul says Pyongyang fired on Thursday as there have been no other such reported firings by Pyongyang in recent days.
ROK Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said on Friday that Pyongyang has been trying to upgrade its large-caliber multiple rocket launch systems in recent years and that those weapons' range has been slightly and gradually increased in each test-launch.
The DPRK media dispatch on Friday called the latest missile launches "significant" because they were made at a time when it is bolstering its national defense because the US and ROK are "going extremely reckless in the moves to isolate and stifle (the DPRK) and unleash a war of aggression".
Short-range test firings by the DPRK aren't unusual, but a barrage of missile and artillery tests earlier this year boosted tension between the rivals. A DPRK artillery attack in 2010 killed four ROK citizens on a front-line Yellow Sea island.
On Thursday, the DPRK army accused the ROK of firing shells into the its waters near the sea boundary. The DPRK army in the front-line area is "full of the strong will of retaliation to punish the provocateurs to the last one by giving vent to their pent-up grudge", said the army statement carried by Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency.
Both of the two neighbors routinely conduct artillery drills near the maritime boundary, a scene of several bloody skirmishes in recent years.
The Korean Peninsula is still technically in a state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice and not a peace treaty.
(China Daily 06/28/2014 page7)
