Shin Beom-cheol, Vice Minister, "Keeping Possibility of North Korea's Taeyangjeol Provocation Open and Preparing"

Shin Beom-chul, Deputy Minister of National Defense, stated that they are preparing for the possibility that North Korea may provoke on specific days such as the Day of the Sun (Kim Il-sung's birthday, April 15) or the founding day of the North Korean military (April 25).

On the 14th, Deputy Minister Shin said on KBS's 'Choi Kyung-young's Strongest Current Affairs,' "Looking at North Korea's past provocations, their provocations tend to intensify on their special commemorative days, such as Kim Il-sung's birthday or the April 25th founding day of the North Korean military."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

On the same day, North Korea announced through the Korean Central News Agency that the ballistic missile launched the previous day was a new solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) called 'Hwasong-18.'

Deputy Minister Shin said, "We believe that they likely launched the solid-fuel missile Hwasong-18 this time accordingly, and we are closely preparing for similar provocations or completely unexpected provocations around the 25th. Since they have provoked on such specific days before, we are keeping various possibilities open and preparing for potential provocations."

Unlike existing liquid-fuel ICBMs, solid-fuel ICBMs have shorter preparation times and are easier to transport, which could potentially neutralize missile defense systems (MD). This is because they can launch ICBMs unexpectedly. Deputy Minister Shin explained, "From a military perspective, the threat has somewhat increased. We can evaluate it this way. It means that the time our reconnaissance assets need to detect North Korea's missiles must be reduced, making it more threatening."

Regarding North Korea's continued non-response to calls on the military communication line of the inter-Korean joint liaison office since the 7th, he said, "The principle is to consider and prepare for all possibilities. In fact, the day they stopped responding was the day after our Ministry of Unification urged North Korea to stop unauthorized use of the Kaesong Industrial Complex. I personally believe that this is an expression of dissatisfaction or a response measure, and they are not responding to regular communication attempts as a means of protest."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Amid the close cooperation of the South Korea-U.S.-Japan alliance against North Korean missiles, a South Korea-U.S.-Japan security meeting is being held in Washington D.C. on the same day to discuss military cooperation measures. In response to the host's question whether 'military cooperation' means a military alliance with Japan's Self-Defense Forces, Deputy Minister Shin said, "Not at all. Alliance, security cooperation, and military cooperation are different levels. An alliance is based on a treaty promise to fight together if either side is attacked. Below that, there is a broader concept called security cooperation. One level below security cooperation is defense military cooperation."

He explained that the core content of military cooperation includes "regularizing anti-submarine training and maritime missile warning drills, or resuming joint maritime blockade training or anti-piracy operations that South Korea, the U.S., and Japan conducted before 2018." He added, "At last year's Phnom Penh South Korea-U.S.-Japan summit, there was talk about sharing North Korean missile warnings in real time. Military cooperation discussions are about how to implement such measures on a military level."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.