| A suspected short-range missile is launched from Kusong, North Pyongan Province, in northwestern North Korea, Thursday, in this photo from the North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). North Korea fired what were presumed to be two short-range missiles into the sea off its east coast, with leader Kim Jong-un observing the launches. KCNA-Yonhap |
By Jung Da-min
The two projectiles North Korea launched Thursday were short-range missiles, the Republic of Korea Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said Friday, but added it is still analyzing if they were ballistic missiles.
Quoting a statement by Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Dave Eastburn, foreign media have reported they were ballistic missiles.
But the South Korean military said the U.S. government's official stance was the same as the South Korean government's that it has yet to confirm if they were ballistic missiles, noting the alliance is still on track for thorough analysis on the specifics about the launches.
North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) Friday revealed photos of the missile launches and testing of other self-propelled guns, which experts identified later as 240-millimeter and 152-millimeter multiple rocket launchers (MRLs).
The KCNA did not say the missiles were its “new tactical guided weapon” but instead said the launch was a part of the North's Korean People's Army's (KPA) strike drill of “various long-range strike means.”
The JCS admitted Friday that there was another test firing of MRLs following the missile tests but sees it as an ordinary military drill for North Korea, which was why it did not report it initially. The explanation came after reports following a briefing at the National Assembly by Rep. Ahn Gyu-back, chairman of the Assembly defense committee, in which Ahn mentioned the self-propelled guns test.
“Given the revealed information by the South Korean military that the two missiles flew about 270 kilometers and 420 kilometers, respectively, both at an altitude around 50 kilometers, it is speculated that they could be modified versions of a Russian Iskander which usually reaches 50 kilometers in altitude and flies as far as 500 kilometers,” said Shin Jong-woo, a senior analyst at the Korea Defense and Security Forum. “The launches seem to be made in different trajectories.”
On Thursday, North Korea fired two short-range missiles at around 4:29 p.m. and 4:49 p.m. in the vicinity of Kusong in North Pyongan Province. Both reached an altitude of around 50 kilometers, landing in the sea off the North's east coast, according to the JCS.
The latest provocations by the North came five days after its launch of multiple projectiles including what the North claimed was its new tactical guided weapon, widely suspected to be a short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) which bears similarities with a Russian Iskander missile.
The JCS said it is also reviewing if the North's weapon test on May 4 involved the same missiles seen from the latest test. North Korea used a tracked transporter erector launcher (TEL) for the May 9 missile tests, while it used a wheeled TEL for the tactical guided weapon firing on May 4, the JCS said.
A tracked transporter is slower than a wheeled one but it is capable of moving missiles around rough terrain.