SEOUL • The missiles fired by North Korea on Wednesday were a test of a new "railway-borne missile system" designed as a potential counter-strike to any forces that threaten the country, state media Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said yesterday.
The missiles flew 800km before striking a target in the sea off North Korea's east coast, according to KCNA.
On Wednesday, South Korean and Japanese authorities said they had detected the launch of two ballistic missiles from North Korea, just days after it tested a cruise missile that analysts said could have nuclear capabilities.
The North Korean launches came the same day that South Korea tested a submarine-launched ballistic missile, becoming the first country without nuclear weapons to develop such a system.
The two Koreas have been in an increasingly heated arms race, with both sides unveiling more capable missiles and other weapons.
The tests by nuclear-armed North Korea drew international condemnation and concern, however, with the United States saying they violated UN Security Council resolutions and posed a threat to Pyongyang's neighbours.
"The United States condemns the DPRK's missile launch. This launch is in violation of multiple UN Security Council Resolutions and poses a threat to the DPRK's neighbours and other members of the international community," a State Department spokesman said, referring to the North by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
But the spokesman added: "We remain committed to a diplomatic approach to the DPRK and call on them to engage in dialogue."
North Korea has been steadily developing its weapons systems, raising the stakes for stalled talks aimed at dismantling its nuclear and ballistic missile arsenals in return for US sanctions relief.
The North Korean test was conducted by a railway-borne missile regiment that had been organised earlier this year, the KCNA report said.
"The railway-borne missile system serves as an efficient counter-strike means capable of dealing a harsh multi-concurrent blow to the threat-posing forces," said North Korean marshal Pak Jong Chon, a member of the Presidium of the Politburo of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, who oversaw the test, according to KCNA.
Photos released by state media showed an olive-green missile rising on a column of smoke and flames from the roof of a train parked on tracks in a mountainous area.
South Korea had reported the missiles were fired from the central inland area of Yangdok.
"Rail mobile missiles are a relatively cheap and reliable option for countries seeking to improve the survivability of their nuclear forces," Mr Adam Mount, a senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists, said on Twitter. He added: "Russia did it. The US considered it. It makes a ton of sense for North Korea."
Mr Mount and other analysts said the system is likely constrained by North Korea's relatively limited and sometimes unreliable rail network, but that it could add another layer of complexity for a foreign military seeking to track and destroy the missiles before they are fired.
According to KCNA, Mr Pak said there are plans to expand the railway-borne missile regiment to a brigade-size force in the near future, and to conduct training to gain "operational experience for actual war".
"The railway system displayed on Wednesday could possibly set the stage for developing one capable of launching a larger, nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missile, said senior fellow Ankit Panda at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Meanwhile, the US State Department spokesman said Washington's commitment to the defence of South Korea and Japan "remains ironclad".
President Joe Biden's administration said in an April policy review on North Korea that the US was willing to engage Pyongyang.
But it also signalled it was looking more for a practical approach following the unusual personal diplomacy of previous president Donald Trump, who had three meetings with the authoritarian state's young leader Kim Jong Un.
Mr Trump had said he should have won the Nobel Peace Prize for preventing war, but North Korea never signed a permanent agreement to end its nuclear programme.
REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
