'Monitored from preparation stage … launch point precisely identified'

'Serious violation of UN Security Council resolutions … must stop immediately'

The Ministry of National Defense building [Yonhap]
The Ministry of National Defense building [Yonhap]

South Korea's Ministry of National Defense said Sunday that the hypersonic medium-range ballistic missile North Korea recently launched can be fully detected and intercepted by South Korean and US defense assets, directly pushing back against Pyongyang's claim that the weapon can evade the trilateral missile defense network through its irregular flight trajectory.

The Defense Ministry issued a statement Sunday on North Korea's ballistic missile launch, saying South Korean forces "closely monitored North Korea's recent consecutive missile launches from the preparation stage, detected and tracked the missiles immediately after launch, and precisely identified the launch point."

"South Korea and the United States maintain a firm combined defense posture, and we assess that the missile North Korea recently launched is fully detectable and interceptable by the defense assets held by both countries," the ministry added.

The ministry also called the launches a serious violation of UN Security Council resolutions and urged North Korea to "immediately cease actions that heighten tensions on the Korean Peninsula and join efforts to establish lasting peace."

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff detected a single ballistic missile fired Saturday morning from the Wonsan area toward the East Sea. The JCS said the missile flew more than 700 kilometers and that South Korea and the United States were conducting a detailed analysis of its specifications.

North Korea claimed the missile struck a target approximately 1,000 kilometers out to sea. The Rodong Sinmun reported that Korean Workers' Party General Secretary Kim Jong-un personally observed the launch drill. The flight trajectory North Korea released showed the missile descending and then climbing again in what is known as a "wave-glide" flight pattern.

Kim Yo-jong, director of the Workers' Party's Organization and Guidance Department, cited in a statement issued the same day the discrepancy between the detection distances reported by South Korea's JCS (more than 700 kilometers) and Japan's Defense Ministry (about 680 kilometers). She said that "every time the wave-glide trajectory method was applied, the enemy lost track of the target after the first skip point," adding that "this means there is in effect no way to evade this strike." The Defense Ministry's statement was seen as a direct rebuttal of that claim.

Military authorities believe the missile used the same first- and second-stage solid-fuel propulsion system and conical warhead as the Hwaseong-16B. Hypersonic missiles capable of gliding and re-skipping fly at lower altitudes than conventional ballistic missiles and can change direction and altitude, making them notoriously difficult to detect, track and intercept with ground-based radar.

The launch came one day after Kim Yo-jong dismissed the prospect of inter-Korean dialogue. She had derided President Lee Jae Myung's Armed Forces Day address — in which he pledged to reduce military tensions — as a "self-scripted clown show," and dismissed Unification Minister Jeong Dong-young's offer of talks as "a delusion not even worth responding to."

The launch also came three days after the military demanded an apology and accountability from North Korea over a landmine explosion Wednesday in the demilitarized zone on the western front that seriously wounded three South Korean soldiers. Kim Yo-jong had dismissed that incident as "an obvious self-staged provocation."

The military has heightened surveillance and alert readiness in preparation for additional launches, maintaining its posture based on intelligence sharing among South Korea, the United States and Japan.


rimsclub@heraldcorp.com