By Jun Ji-hye
North Korea’s purported successful test of an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) is expected to accelerate ongoing talks between South Korea and the United States on deploying an advanced U.S. missile defense system here.
Following the missile launch on Wednesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said the North’s latest IRBM test underscored the need for Washington and its allies to build strong missile defenses.
“For whatever reason, and with whatever level of success, this shows the need for us to continue to do what we’re doing, which is build these missile defenses of various ranges to protect both our South Korean allies, U.S. forces on the Korean Peninsula, Japan and U.S. territory,” Carter said during a visit to the U.S. Army post at Fort Knox, Kentucky, according to the Pentagon.
South Korean defense officials also said it has become even more important to establish better missile defense system to respond to growing threats from Pyongyang’s ballistic missiles mounted with miniaturized nuclear warheads.
The comments come as the North appears to have made considerable progress in developing its IRBMs, as well as intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), especially in developing missile engines.
“The North is believed to have verified the engine of the missile and its flight distance through the latest test,” South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-koo told reporters, Friday. “We assess that the North’s technology has made progress in those two areas.”
The IRBMs, better known as the Musudan, believed to have a range of 3,000 to 4,000 kilometers, could strike any target in Japan and reach Guam, home to U.S. naval and air bases. The ICBM, which is yet to be tested, is believed to have a theoretical range of more than 10,000 kilometers, enough to reach the U.S. mainland.
The U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), if deployed on Korean soil, is designed to intercept the North’s short and medium-range missiles such as Scuds and Nodongs at the terminal phase, and is not used to shoot down IRBMs or ICBMs.
However, a military official noted on condition of anonymity that the North’s latest launch of the IRBM is not unrelated to the deployment of THAAD on the peninsula as Pyongyang’s improvement in the longer-range ballistic missile technology would mean that its shorter-range missile capability also has been greatly improved.
Another military official did not rule out the possibility that the North, as it did in the latest test, could use an acute high-arc trajectory when launching the IRBM and deliberately aim short to strike Seoul.
In that case, Patriot Advanced Capability-3 interceptors that Seoul plans to introduce by the 2020s would not be able to intercept the missile because its falling speed would be too fast, the official said, adding that THAAD might be able to shoot it down.
Park Hwee-rhak, dean of the Graduate School of Politics and Leadership at Kookmin University, said: “As the North’s missile capability has continued to be improved, the need to deploy THAAD will be more and more highlighted. In this case, the government has no choice but to change its diplomatic policy that looks after Chinese concerns.”
China, South Korea’s No. 1 trade partner, has repeatedly expressed opposition to THAAD, apparently out of concern that its AN/TPY-2 radar system could spy on its military activities and missile capabilities.
On Thursday, North Korea claimed that its IRBM test was successful and that it has secured the capability to launch a nuclear attack on U.S. forces in the Pacific.
The U.N. Security Council issued a statement, also on Thursday, strongly condemning the North’s latest missile tests, saying they contribute to the totalitarian state’s development of nuclear weapons delivery systems.
“The members of the Security Council strongly condemned the most recent ballistic missile launches,” the council said in the statement, issued a day after it held an emergency meeting to discuss the North’s IRBM launches.