North is mum on Wednesday's missile launches

Pyongyang on Thursday made no mention of its latest missile launches toward the East Sea as Seoul and Washington were holding a combined naval exercise, in what local analysts called a demonstration of "strategic ambiguity."

Fog blankets North Korea’s Kaepung County near the inter-Korean border on Thursday shortly before U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris was expected to arrive in the demilitarized zone (DMZ). Pyongyang remained mum about its two missile launches from the day before. [YONHAP]

Pyongyang on Thursday made no mention of its latest missile launches toward the East Sea as Seoul and Washington were holding a combined naval exercise, in what local analysts called a demonstration of “strategic ambiguity.”

Neither North Korea’s state-run Rodong Sinmun nor the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released any details about Wednesday's launches, a rare move from a communist regime that takes every chance to brag about its military might, often with groundless exaggerations.

According to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), Pyongyang fired two-short range missiles on Wednesday evening, both of which landed in North Korean territorial waters.

The first missile was believed to have been fired from Sunan airfield near the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, while the second missile following at 6:20 p.m. from the same location. Both were fired from transporter erector launchers, a type of mobile launching platform.

The missiles flew approximately 360 kilometers (227 miles) at maximum speeds of Mach 6 and peaked at an altitude of 30 kilometers, the JCS said.

The missiles’ target was said to be an uninhabited island off the coast of Kilju County, North Hamgyong Province.

Although both missiles landed in North Korean territorial waters, it was the first time Pyongyang fired missiles toward the East Sea while the South Korean and U.S. forces were conducting a combined military exercise.

The allies, at the time, were holding a four-day combined naval exercise featuring the nuclear-powered U.S. aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan, which ended Thursday.

Wednesday’s launches came three days after the regime fired a short-range ballistic missile and a single day before the arrival of U.S. Vice President Kamal Harris in Seoul.

Local experts believe the missiles were KN-24s, a single-stage, solid-fueled tactical ballistic missile.

“North Korea has lately been refraining from publicly mentioning the outcomes of its strategic missile launches,” said Park Yong-han, senior researcher at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses.

“Not only is the regime trying to maximize its strategic ambiguity,” he continued, “it also seems to be trying to test the South Korean and U.S. allies’ detection abilities.”

Lim Eul-chul, a professor at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University, said in order to read North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s intentions, experts now had to start from Pyongyang’s new nuclear policy on the use of preemptive nuclear strikes.

Earlier this month, North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament, the Supreme People’s Assembly, adopted a law stipulating that the North will “automatically and immediately” launch a nuclear strike to attack the origin of any provocation if the “command and control system” of its nuclear forces is in danger of an attack, an apparent reference to Kim.

The law states that a nuclear strike could be triggered if an attack on its nuclear weapons were imminent; if the country or its people were under threat; or to gain the upper hand during war.

“It’s possible to interpret [North Korea’s missile launches on Wednesday] as a warning that it could take action as per its nuclear policy,” said Lim.

South Korea’s military said Thursday it was analyzing Pyongyang’s motives.

Both the South Korean and U.S. governments strongly condemned the latest launches.

BY LEE SUNG-EUN, CHUNG YEONG-GYO [lee.sungeun@joongang.co.kr]