[Editorial] N. Korea needs to immediately engage in constructive behavior

North Korea launches two short-range projectiles into the East Sea on Aug. 24, as reported by the Korean Central News Agency the following day.

On the morning of Aug. 24, North Korea launched two short-range projectiles into the East Sea. Reports in North Korea’s state-run press on Aug. 25 stated that the projectiles in question had been fired by a newly developed “super-large multiple rocket launcher.” When rockets and ballistic missiles are both included, this was the ninth time that North Korea has fired a projectile with a range of several hundred kilometers this year, and the fifth this month alone. It’s an unacceptable provocation for Pyongyang to repeatedly launch projectiles, and consequently raise military tensions, instead of resuming denuclearization negotiations as it should have already done. The North needs to halt all further launches and take part in dialogue with South Korea and denuclearization talks with the US.

The South Korean military estimates that the rockets launched by North Korea had a maximum altitude of 97km and a flight range of 380km, with a top speed of at least Mach 6.5. In short, they are an advanced weapon that can hit targets anywhere in South Korea. As we move forward on the long journey toward peace on the Korean Peninsula, a journey beset by numerous obstacles, the acquisition of this kind of weaponry only incites mistrust and raises tensions. It also flies in the face of the pledge that the leaders of the two sides made in their Pyongyang summit in September 2018 to work toward the end of military hostility.

Furthermore, the South Korea-US joint military exercises to which Pyongyang had objected have already ended. According to US President Donald Trump’s description of a personal letter he apparently received from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un not long ago, Kim said he would suspend missile tests and rejoin the denuclearization talks once those exercises were over. But firing short-range projectiles once again is sure to cast a pall on efforts to quickly resume the denuclearization talks.

North Korea test launches newly developed short-range projectiles on Aug. 24.

Of course, North Korea has its own political reasons for these launches. Pyongyang has few other ways of pressuring the US, which has been reluctant to ease sanctions, and it likely also needs to ensure internal unity prior to the meeting of its Supreme People’s Assembly on Aug. 29. But North Korea needs to be aware that ratcheting up military tensions like this will only erode its credibility.

Trump noted that his very good relationship with Kim could change at any time but that he was watching to see what would happen. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the US was ready to hold negotiations whenever North Korea got in touch, despite being bashed by North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho as a “poisonous plant of American diplomacy.” It’s fortunate that the US has reiterated its commitment to dialogue. But we must take heed of the increasing criticism inside the US that Trump’s lukewarm stance has emboldened Pyongyang to push ahead with repeated missile launches. North Korea needs to immediately engage in constructive behavior aimed at relaunching the denuclearization talks.

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