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NUKEWARS
North Korea says Kim ordered test of 'new type' of ICBM
By Cat BARTON, Claire LEE
Seoul (AFP) March 25, 2022

US announces new sanctions after North Korea ICBM test
Washington (AFP) March 25, 2022 - The United States imposed new sanctions Thursday on entities and people in Russia and North Korea after Pyongyang's latest ICBM missile test.

The targeted persons and organizations are accused of "transferring sensitive items to North Korea's missile program," according to a State Department statement.

"These measures are part of our ongoing efforts to impede the DPRK's ability to advance its missile program and they highlight the negative role Russia plays on the world stage as a proliferator to programs of concern," the statement said, using the official acronym for North Korea.

The new sanctions were quickly derided by Moscow's ambassador in Washington Anatoly Antonov, who said: "serial sanctions will not achieve their goals."

Thursday's launch was the first time Pyongyang had fired the country's most powerful missiles at full range since 2017, and it appears to have travelled higher and further than any previous intercontinental ballistic missile tested by the nuclear-armed nation.

Kim Jong Un personally oversaw the test-firing of a "new type" of ICBM to boost his country's nuclear deterrent against the US "imperialists," North Korea's state media reported early Friday.

In response, the State Department said Washington has sanctioned the Russian entities called Ardis Group, PFK Profpodshipnik and Russian national Igor Aleksandrovich Michurin.

It also sanctioned North Korean citizen Ri Sung Chol and a North Korean entity called Second Academy of Natural Science Foreign Affairs Bureau.

The statement did not detail the specific allegations against these people and entities.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong late Thursday to reaffirm Washington's alliance with Seoul.

The two top diplomats reiterated that the launch violated multiple UN Security Council resolutions, and "demonstrates the threat the DPRK's unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs pose to the DPRK's neighbors and the broader international community," State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a readout of the call.

For its part, the Russian embassy accused the United States of seeking to punish officials in Moscow because they hold a view that "does not correspond to the views of Washington."

"It is obvious that the next 'package' of anti-Russian sanctions is aimed at destroying the economy and undermining the domestic political situation in our country," Antonov posted on the embassy's Facebook page.

Last week, the US Treasury announced sanctions against two Russian individuals and three entities over their support for North Korea's weapons program.

Kim Jong Un personally oversaw the test-firing of North Korea's largest-ever intercontinental ballistic missile, ensuring his country is ready for "long-standing confrontation" with the United States, state media reported Friday.

The Thursday launch was the first time Pyongyang has fired Kim's most powerful missiles at full range since 2017.

It appears to have travelled higher and further than any previous ICBM tested by the nuclear-armed country -- including one designed to strike anywhere on the US mainland.

The test-launch of the "new type inter-continental ballistic missile" was conducted under the "direct guidance" of leader Kim, KCNA reported.

State media photographs showed Kim, wearing his customary black leather jacket and dark sunglasses, striding across the tarmac in front of a huge missile, with other images of him cheering and celebrating the test launch with uniformed military top brass.

The new ICBM "would make the whole world clearly aware of the power of our strategic armed forces once again," Kim said, according to KCNA, adding the country was now "fully ready for long-standing confrontation with the US imperialists".

Kim is seen removing his sunglasses before ordering the missile launch to go ahead, in a slickly-produced state media video, featuring images of the missile blasting off from land in a blaze of fire and smoke.

- 'Monster missile' -

Known as the Hwasong-17, the giant ICBM was first unveiled in October 2020 and dubbed a "monster missile" by analysts.

It had never previously been successfully test-fired, and the launch prompted immediate outrage from Pyongyang's neighbours and the United States.

"The missile, launched at Pyongyang International Airport, travelled up to a maximum altitude of 6,248.5 km and flew a distance of 1,090 km for 4,052s before accurately hitting the pre-set area in open waters" in the Sea of Japan, KCNA said.

South Korea's military had estimated the range of the Thursday launch as 6,200 kilometres (3,900 miles) -- far longer than the last ICBM, the Hwasong-15, which North Korea tested in November 2017.

The missile landed in Japan's exclusive economic zone, prompting anger from Tokyo, but KCNA said the test had been carried out "in a vertical launch mode" to ease neighbours' security concerns.

Following Thursday's test, Washington imposed new sanctions on entities and people in Russia and North Korea who are accused of "transferring sensitive items to North Korea's missile program".

The North is already under biting international sanctions for its weapons programs, and the UN Security Council will hold an emergency meeting over the launch on Friday.

- 'Important progress' -

The test is a clear sign North Korea has made "important qualitative progress" on its banned weapons programs, said US-based analyst Ankit Panda.

"What's important about this ICBM is not how far it can go, but what it can potentially carry, which is multiple warheads," something North Korea has long coveted, he told AFP.

"The North Koreans are on the cusp of significantly increasing the threat to the United States beyond the ICBM capability demonstrated in 2017."

Multiple warheads would help a North Korean missile evade US missile defence systems.

The North had carried out three ICBM tests prior to Thursday, the last being the Hwasong-15 in 2017.

Long-range and nuclear tests were paused when Kim and then-US president Donald Trump engaged in a bout of diplomacy which collapsed in 2019. Talks have since stalled.

Thursday's launch, one of nearly a dozen North Korean weapons tests this year, marked a dramatic return to long-range testing.

It came just days after one last week, likely also of the Hwasong-17, failed, exploding after launch.

- Compensation -

"This test also appears to 'compensate' for last week's failed projectile launch -- handsomely so," Soo Kim, RAND Corporation Policy Analyst and former CIA analyst, told AFP.

"The regime appears quite pleased with the outcome of the test," she added.

KCNA said that the launch proved the weapon worked and that its operation could now be guaranteed even "under wartime environment".

The country's new ICBM launch comes at a delicate time for the region, with South Korea going through a presidential transition until May, and the US distracted by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Analysts say the drive to successfully test-fire the Hwasong-17 is part of Pyongyang's preparations to mark the 110th anniversary of the birth of founder Kim Il Sung on April 15.

The official Rodong Sinmun newspaper carried a photograph of a haggard-looking Kim signing papers at his desk, with an image of a handwritten "I approve the test launch" scrawled over a report.

"Kim Jong Un wants to ultimately establish himself as a leader who has successfully developed both nuclear weapons and ICBMs," Ahn Chan-il, a North Korean studies scholar, told AFP.

"He is almost desperate as without such military achievements, he really hasn't done much," he added, pointing to the isolated country's Covid- and sanctions-battered economy.


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NUKEWARS
North Korea isolation deepening rights abuses: UN expert
Geneva (AFP) March 21, 2022
North Korea's prolonged isolation is deepening its rights crisis, a UN expert said Monday, stressing the need for diplomatic and UN engagement with the impoverished, nuclear-armed state. With the world's attention on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, it is also vital to avoid unchecked escalation in North Korea, said Tomas Ojea Quintana, the UN special rapporteur on the rights situation in the country. "The situation on the Korean peninsula could rapidly and dangerously escalate," he told reporters ... read more

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