North continues to ghost South as it tests undersea drone

North Korea didn’t respond to routine calls from the South over the weekend, heightening tensions on the peninsula amid reports that it conducted another underwater nuclear drone test.

A photo that ran in North Korea’s official Rodong Sinmun and aired by Korean Central Television on Saturday shows the regime testing an “underwater nuclear attack drone” called Haeil-2 last week. [YONHAP]

North Korea didn’t respond to routine calls from the South over the weekend, heightening tensions on the peninsula amid reports that it conducted another underwater nuclear drone test.

South Korea’s military said Sunday that the North did not answer its calls through the military hotlines installed near the Yellow Sea and East Sea for the third consecutive day.

Two calls are placed each day, at 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.

A separate inter-Korean hotline managed by the South’s Ministry of Unification does not operate on weekends, but the North didn’t respond to calls via the line on Friday.

Two calls are placed each weekday, at 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

A Unification Ministry said Sunday the government would see whether the North responds on Monday and consider taking measures.

An official at the South’s Ministry of National Defense said it was leaving open the possibility of both technical malfunctions and intentional response denials.

North Korea has a long history of severing communication with the South, but this marks the first time during the Yoon Suk Yeol administration that the calls on the hotlines have gone unanswered.

In the past, Pyongyang refused to pick up the phone while slamming Seoul about its combined military exercise with the United States or its anti-North Korea activists sending propaganda leaflets across the border.

On June 16, 2020, Pyongyang blew up the Inter-Korean Liaison Office in the North Korean border town of Kaesong, a week after it severed communication with the South in protest to the South Korean activists sending the leaflets.

Experts say North Korea could be declining calls from the South due to the recent massive combined military exercise with the United States or its co-sponsorship of a North Korean human rights resolution in the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Another possible reason can be traced to the Unification Ministry's call on the North last Thursday to stop the unauthorized use of South Korean assets, including buses, left at the jointly run Kaesong Industrial Complex, which was shut down in 2016.

An unresponsive regime comes as the North’s state media said Saturday that it carried out an “underwater strategic weapon” test last week.

Pyongyang’s official newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, ran an article on the second page of its Saturday issue saying that its “underwater nuclear attack drone,” called Haeil-2, traveled undersea for 71 hours and six minutes from last Tuesday to Friday before accurately hitting its target, where the “test warhead” detonated.

According to the report, the drone started from Kajin Port in Kumya County, South Hamgyong Province on Tuesday afternoon and cruised 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) in elliptical courses and patterns of the number “8.”

Three days later, it arrived in the waters off Ryongdae Port of Tanchon, South Hamgyong Province, read the article.

“The test perfectly proved the reliability of the underwater strategic weapons system and its fatal attack ability,” according to an English-language article uploaded to the newspaper's website.

“The system will serve as an advantageous and prospective military potential of the armed forces of the DPRK essential for containing all evolving military actions of enemies, removing threats and defending the country.”

DPRK is short for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Pyongyang’s latest underwater drone test comes only a week after it tested what it called the Haeil-1 on March 27. Just three days before that, it tested the Haeil.

Haeil is Korean for tsunami.

“North Korea is naming its underwater nuclear weapons just like how it did for its cruise missiles Hwasal-1 and Hwasal-2,” said Shin Jong-woo, secretary general of the Korea Defense and Security Forum.

Shin said it appeared Haeil-2 was a larger version of Haeil-1, given that Haeil-2 traveled longer than Haeil-1.

Shin said the North seemed to have revealed an advanced underwater nuclear weapon in response to the South Korean military’s remarks about being able to detect Pyongyang’s underwater infiltration capabilities.

More provocations from the North are likely in the coming days, as North Korean founder Kim Il Sung's birthday, the largest holiday in the North that is also known as the Day of the Sun, falls on the upcoming Saturday.

Pyongyang has also warned of launching a reconnaissance satellite later this month.

BY LEE SUNG-EUN [lee.sungeun@joongang.co.kr]