North Korea missile launch tests Biden, alarms Japan

SEOUL/TOKYO: North Korea launched two suspected ballistic missiles into the sea near Japan on Thursday, underscoring steady progess in its weapons programme and ramping up pressure on the new U.S. administration as it reviews North Korea policy.

The apparent tests were reported by authorities in the United States, South Korea, and Japan, and coincided with the start of the Olympic torch relay in Japan.

They would be the first ballistic missile tests by North Korea in nearly a year and the first reported since U.S. President Joe Biden took office in January.

Analysts said the latest missile tests did not mean denuclearisation diplomacy was dead, but they highlight an inconvenient truth for the U.S. administration: Pyongyang’s arsenal is advancing, posing new threats and increasing its potential bargaining power should talks resume.

“Every day that passes without a deal that tries to reduce the risks posed by North Korea’s nuclear and missile arsenal is a day that it gets bigger and badder,” said Vipin Narang, a nuclear affairs expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States.

Thursday’s launches came just days after North Korea fired several cruise missiles in an exercise that Biden said was not provocative but “business as usual”.

The Biden administration is in the final stages of its North Korea policy review, officials have said, and has been simultaneously signalling a hard line on human rights, denuclearisation and sanctions, while making diplomatic overtures that have been rebuffed by Pyongyang.

It would be a mistake for Washington to ignore the advances in North Korea’s short-range missiles, especially after leader Kim Jong Un declared in January that his military had the technology to miniaturise nuclear warheads and place them on tactical missiles, said Markus Garlauskas, a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council and former U.S. National Intelligence Officer for North Korea.

“Downplaying North Korean ballistic missile tests will not help U.S. diplomacy with North Korea in any way, and would only encourage North Korea to further test the bounds of what the new administration can accept,” he said.

The missile launches highlight the threat North Korea’s illicit weapons programme poses to its neighbours and the international community, the United States military’s Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement.

The command said it was monitoring the situation and consulting allies. There was no official comment from the White House or State Department on the test.

North Korea typically confirms such missile tests – which it says are part of its sovereign right to self-defence – in state media the day after they happen.

Japan’s coastguard said the first missile was detected soon after 7 a.m. and flew about 420 km (260 miles), followed by a second 20 minutes later that flew about 430 km.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff reported that two “short-range missiles” were fired into the sea between the Korean peninsula and Japan from North Korea’s east coast.

South Korean and U.S. intelligence agencies were analysing the data of the launch for additional information, the JCS said in a statement.

Narang said even short-range ballistic missile tests would be a “step up” from the weekend cruise-missile test and allow North Korea to improve its technology while sending a proportionate response to recent U.S.-South Korea military drills.