North Korea tests 7th missile in a month, but should the world pay attention?
It seems like several parts of the world are vying for the attention from the one and only President of the United States, Joe Biden. After having to deal with China, coronavirus, Russia, Ukraine and bickering NATO allies, there is one more faraway country that wants its presence to be known.
It’s none other than North Korea. The pariah nation tested its seventh missile for the January month alone. According to reports from South Korea and Japan, this time it was reportedly an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), capable of striking a remote US territorial island, Guam, in Oceania.
The North Korean state media, usually known for making such tests public, confirmed that Pyongyang tested Hwasong-12 missile. Reports say it is North Korea’s first powerful missile launch since 2017. The North Korean media also released the pictures taken by the missile from space. The missile later fell into the Sea of Japan.
North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong-un kickstarted 2022 with a flurry of missile tests, enough to result in a dizziness spell for countries like South Korea, Japan, US and others.
WHAT DO THE MISSILE TESTS MEAN?
North Korea is under heavy economic and defence sanctions by the UN at the behest of the US. However, North Korea continues to regularly defy the sanctions. It is almost as if the sanctions don’t really mean anything, though they have kept the country from testing nuclear weapons.
And another major development on the North Korea front, which can't be more ironic, is that it has been named the chair of the UN disarmament conference - though the position is mostly as ceremonial as it can be defined. For the unversed, the UN forum of 65 members focuses on lending support to nuclear disarmament and opposing any new creation of weapons of mass destruction. It's the irony of the mother of all ironies.
North Korea will be the chair of the UN forum in May after Cuba's rotation is over. If you are surprised why it's happening, then let us assure you it's based on alphabetical order, like in a classroom, where everyone was forced to be the class monitor, notwithstanding the student record or anything else.
Once you have recovered from the shock, here are a few reasons to explain North Korea’s latest missile tests:
1. Kim Jong-un may be trying to get the attention of the US, trying to start nuclear talks. However, Joe Biden seems to have fallen back on the ‘sanctions’ move to respond to North Korea like most of his predecessors, though it has hardly kept Kim Jong-un away from the weapons path.
2. It also comes ahead of South Korean presidential elections due in March. North Korea is known for such behaviour as its way to invite or intimidate the incoming South Korean President. Moreover, Kim Jong-un has a reason to be concerned if the conservatives replace the ruling democrats in South Korea, as the former is expected to take a harder line against the North.
3. The flurry of missile tests also comes ahead of the Beijing Winter Olympics. If China is irritated with the missile tests, it has not yet complained publicly. There is a possibility that Pyongyang may be trying to test out most of their missiles before the Games begin, and let their allies in Beijing have the international attention during the period.
4. The current flurry of missile tests may also be a signal to what may come in the future – like nuclear weapons tests.
IS THE LATEST MISSILE TEST A SHOW-OFF?
BLUF: in '17, NK presented these launches as a much bigger deal (KJU guided them, front-page news). The message? "We have new missiles and you should know they work."Now, it's a fact-of-life: we have missiles, they work, and we'll occasionally test them to make sure they work. https://t.co/JWjGQ0v99z
— Ankit Panda (@nktpnd) January 30, 2022
The latest missile test doesn’t seem like a show-off, reports said. As the North Korean state media reported, it was just to ‘verify its accuracy’. In fact, this time around, Kim Jong-un wasn’t pictured at the test launch unlike previous times.
Reports do say that from previous such exhibitions, North Korea does have arsenal enough to strike the US mainland.
WHAT DOES NORTH KOREA WANT THOUGH?
The BBC News reports that ultimately, North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un is very insecure and wants to build up defence capabilities at the end of the day. However, it also wants the UN sanctions lifted to even have any room to stretch economically – even its trade ties with China with or without sanctions can come only so long.
And in the long term, North Korea may also want US military exit from the South.
With all that, North Korea will continue to be like the Whac-a-Mole game for the world and the US.