People watch a television screen at Suseo railway station in Seoul showing news footage of North Korea’s latest tactical guided projectile test. — AFP photo
WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden warned North Korea Thursday that the US will ‘respond accordingly’ if it escalates its military testing, after Pyongyang fired two missiles in its first major provocation since he took office.
The nuclear-armed North has a long history of using weapons tests to ramp up tensions, in a carefully calibrated process to try to forward its objectives.
Biden’s response demonstrates a change of tone from his predecessor Donald Trump, who engaged in an extraordinary diplomatic bromance with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and last year repeatedly played down similar short-range launches.
Pyongyang had been biding its time since the new administration took office, not even officially acknowledging its existence until last week.
But on Thursday it launched two weapons from its east coast into the Sea of Japan, known as the East Sea in Korea.
It was a violation of United Nations (UN) resolutions and the US was “consulting with our partners and allies,” Biden said, warning North Korea that “there will be responses if they choose to escalate. We will respond accordingly.”
“I’m also prepared for some form of diplomacy, but it has to be conditioned upon the end result of denuclearisation,” he told reporters.
Washington and Tokyo said the North had fired ballistic missiles, which it is banned from developing under UN Security Council resolutions that have imposed multiple sanctions on the isolated country.
Pyongyang insisted yesterday that the test involved a ‘tactical guided projectile’ with a solid-fuel engine, with its official KCNA news agency saying it was supervised by senior official Ri Pyong Chol, rather than leader Kim Jong Un.
The weapons hit a target 600 kilometres away, KCNA said — further than the 450 kilometres reported by South Korea’s military – and could carry a payload of 2.5 tonnes.
Pictures in Pyongyang’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper showed grinning officers applauding after the launch, most of them not wearing masks.
Vipin Narang of MIT said it appeared to be a weapon that the North displayed at a military parade in January.
“A 2.5 tonne warhead likely settles the question whether this KN23 variant is nuclear capable. It is,” he tweeted.
The US stations 28,500 troops in South Korea to defend it against its neighbour, which invaded in 1950, while Pyongyang says it needs nuclear weapons to deter a possible US invasion.
Besides Biden’s comments, rebukes poured in from Germany, France and Britain, which each condemned the tests as violations of UN Security Council resolutions.
At Washington’s request, the UN North Korea sanctions committee meet yesterday behind closed doors, according to diplomatic sources, although no public statement is expected.
Pyongyang has made rapid progress in its capabilities under leader Kim, testing missiles capable of reaching the entire continental US as tensions mounted in 2017. — AFP
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