Launch comes ahead of Trump's inauguration, during Blinken's visit to Seoul
North Korea fired a suspected hypersonic ballistic missile into the East Sea around noon, marking its first missile provocation this year, South Korea's military said Monday.
According to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the suspected intermediate-range ballistic missile flew about 1,100 kilometers after being launched from the Pyongyang area Monday at noon, before plunging into the sea off the east coast. The missile flew for "less than 10 minutes" in the direction of an unoccupied island off the coast of North Hamgyong Province before falling into sea, according to the JCS official, who requested anonymity.
The missile, the flight distance of which was less than the known IRBM range of between 3,000 to 5,500 kilometers, is seen as an "extension" of its tests on its intermediate-range hypersonic missiles, fired in January and April last year, the JCS official explained. "It's not a completely new type of missile," the official said.
In April 2024, Pyongyang claimed it had successfully fired an IRBM tipped with a hypersonic warhead. Seoul labeled the launch unsuccessful, despite the North having made progress in its plan to develop more sophisticated weapons.
The launch comes about two weeks ahead of US President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20 and during US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit to Seoul. Blinken, who will be stepping down from his role as the top US envoy to make way for Trump's administration, and Seoul's Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul denounced the North's latest launch after their talks Monday.
An expert pointed out that the timing of the launch not only comes in tandem with major diplomatic and political events, but as the deadline for North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's five-year plan to develop a defense science and weapons system, announced in late 2021, looms.
"This year is technically the last year for the five-year plan for its defense and weapons plan, which means that the latest test conveys Pyongyang's willingness to speed up the progress in the related programs," said Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies.
"With the range being 1,100 kilometers, it's focused on provocations on the peninsula and at US troops stationed in Okinawa -- a showcase of its power on the peninsula and to see a reaction from South Korea, US and Japan altogether," he added.
Pyongyang launched the first of what it claimed to be a hypersonic missile powered by solid fuel in January 2024. Such warheads can travel at more than five times the speed of sound, or about 6,200 kilometers per hour, often at relatively low altitudes, according to experts.
The JCS said that it preemptively monitored the North's missile launch and closely communicated with the US and Japan regarding information on the latest provocation. It strongly condemned the North's missile launch as a provocation that seriously threatens peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, while adding that it is ready to counter such provocations under the South Korea-US joint defense posture.
The presidential office, which is suffering from a leadership vacuum after President Yoon Suk Yeol's impeachment last month, convened an emergency meeting shortly after the projectile launch was detected to discuss "measures to counter the situation surrounding the North's missile launch." It pledged that the South Korean government would maintain a full readiness posture to counter any provocations from the North.
The last missile provocation by the North was when it fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea on Nov. 5 last year, in line with the US presidential election being held later the same day.
