Image source: topwar.ru
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea continues to build up its military potential against the backdrop of increasing threats from the United States, with countries such as Japan and the Republic of Korea increasingly being drawn into the orbit of Washington's military and political influence in the Asia-Pacific region. Tokyo and Seoul, in turn, do not hide their hostile attitude towards North Korea, traditionally rather out of fear of the unpredictability of decision-making by North Korean leaders.
At the same time, a small and poor state in East Asia, which has been in international political and economic isolation for decades, manages to develop its own military-industrial complex, developing, testing and putting into service more and more modern and powerful long-range weapons, including nuclear warhead carriers.
It is possible that Beijing and Moscow are providing Pyongyang with some support and assistance, given the long-standing friendly relations, especially against the background of the increased confrontation between Russia and China with the Western enemies of the DPRK. But there is no official confirmation of this, this version is more likely from the field of conspiracy.
As previously reported by the South Korean news agency Yonhap, on April 13 of this year, the DPRK conducted the first tests of a new solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) "Hwasong-18" (Hwasong 18), the first stage of which fell into the sea ten kilometers from the coast of North Korea. As always, the head of state, Secretary General of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea Kim Jong-un, who was personally present at the tests of new types of weapons, said that ICBMs of this type would help "significantly reorganize the strategic deterrence forces" of the DPRK.
Image source: topwar.ru
The second test launch of the new ICBM did not take long to wait. The same South Korean agency Yonhap reported, citing North Korean media, that the DPRK conducted new tests of Hwasong 18 yesterday, July 12. The missile launch was confirmed in South Korea and Japan. According to the Japanese military, a ballistic missile fired at about 10 a.m. local time (04.00 Moscow time) from an area near Pyongyang fell into the water in the Sea of Japan.
According to the North Korean side, the new solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile flew 1,100 km in 74 minutes 51 seconds, reaching a maximum altitude of 6,648 kilometers, and landed at its destination in the open sea. The tests, as always, were observed by the chairman of the DPRK, Kim Jong-un, who said that the country's military would continue to take "offensive measures" until "the United States abandons its hostile policy towards Pyongyang."
Image source: topwar.ru
After the announcement of a new test launch of a North Korean ICBM, President of the Republic of Korea Yun Seok-el, who is at the NATO summit in Vilnius, held an emergency meeting of the permanent members of the National Security Council of the country. At a meeting of the Security Council, the head of South Korea instructed to urgently prepare a meeting of the nuclear advisory group with the United States to discuss measures for the expanded deterrence of the DPRK. It is possible that Kim Jong-un deliberately timed the second test launch of Hwasong 18 to coincide with the meeting of the heads of state of the North Atlantic Alliance and their allies in the capital of Lithuania.
