TOKYO -- A day after two North Korean missile launches rattled Asia, the nation said today that it had tested a "new-type tactical guided weapon" that was meant as a "solemn warning" about South Korean weapons development and its plan to hold military exercises.
The message, which was carried by state media outlets and released in the name of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, was directed at "South Korean military warmongers" and came as U.S. and North Korean officials struggle to set up talks after a recent meeting on the Korean border between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump seemed to provide a breakthrough in stalled nuclear negotiations.
Although the North had harsh words for South Korea, the statement stayed away from the kind of attacks on the United States that have marked past announcements, a possible signal that the North is interested in keeping diplomacy alive.
It made clear, however, that North Korea is infuriated over the U.S. and South Korea's plans to hold joint military drills that the North says are invasion rehearsals and proof of the allies' hostility to Pyongyang.
The message also said that the test "must have given uneasiness and agony to some targeted forces enough as it intended."
On Thursday, the South Korean government said the two projectiles North Korea launched off its east coast were a new type of short-range ballistic missile.
The assessment -- the South's first formal declaration that North Korea is testing a new missile -- accused the North of violating United Nations resolutions that ban it from developing and testing ballistic missile technologies.
"This act by North Korea does not help efforts to ease military tensions on the Korean Peninsula at all," the office of President Moon Jae-in of South Korea said after a meeting Thursday of the South's National Security Council.
Technical analysis is still underway with U.S. officials.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for the swift resumption of working-level talks between the United States and North Korea after the new missile launches.
Guterres has made clear "that he views those meetings as a hopeful development -- and he's hoped that that will lead to progress towards the peaceful denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," said U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq.
Analysts in South Korea said the North appears to have been testing a new solid-fuel, short-range ballistic missile on May 4, May 9 and Thursday. The missile flew 150 miles May 4 and 260 miles May 9.
After the North's tests in May, South Korean and U.S. officials shied away from publicly identifying the projectiles as a new ballistic missile.
One of the two missiles launched Thursday traveled 428 miles, indicating that the North was making quick progress on the new missile. Yet it was not the range of the missile but its looks that alarmed analysts in the region.
After studying the photos North Korea released from the tests in May, South Korean and U.S. analysts said the missile looked like a copy of Russia's Iskander short-range ballistic missile.
Solid-fuel and road-mobile missiles like the Iskander are easier to transport and hide. The Iskander is capable of carrying nuclear warheads and also can be maneuvered during its ballistic trajectory.
These characteristics make such a missile harder to track and intercept, presenting a potentially deadly threat not only to South Korean and American troops based in the South but also to the U.S. warships that would deliver reinforcements should war break out on the Korean Peninsula, missile experts say.
"One, it is difficult to predict where the missile will land and intercept it before it does," North Korea analyst Duyeon Kim and missile expert Melissa Hanham wrote in a recent report. "Two, it is difficult to detect exactly where the missile came from, meaning that North Korean units might be able to launch more missiles before their location is detected and neutralized by South Korea or the United States."
Information for this article was contributed by Hyung-Jin Kim, Deb Riechmann, Mari Yamaguchi, Edith M. Lederer, Liu Zheng and staff members of The Associated Press; and by Choe Sang-Hun of The New York Times.
A Section on 07/26/2019