Ministry of National Defense: North Korea's IRBM Is a Clear Provocation

"'UN Security Council Resolution' Violation... Closely Monitoring Activities"

The Ministry of National Defense strongly condemned North Korea's claim that it launched a solid-fuel mid-range ballistic missile (IRBM) equipped with a hypersonic missile on the 14th, calling it a clear provocation and urging an immediate halt.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

In a statement released on the 15th, the Ministry of National Defense said, "North Korea's actions violate the United Nations (UN) Security Council resolutions prohibiting the use of ballistic missile technology." It also explained, "Our military is enhancing the execution capability of the 'ROK-US Integrated Extended Deterrence' and strengthening its own response capabilities, including the Korean-style 3-axis system, to deter and respond to various missile threats from North Korea." Furthermore, it emphasized, "Under the firm ROK-US combined defense posture, our military is closely monitoring North Korea's various activities, and if North Korea makes a direct provocation against us, we will overwhelmingly respond according to the principle of 'Immediate, Strong, and Final (즉·강·끝).'"

The Joint Chiefs of Staff announced that on the previous day, North Korea launched one IRBM from the Pyongyang area toward the East Sea at around 2:55 p.m., and the missile landed in the East Sea after flying approximately 1,000 km.

At a regular briefing, Unification Ministry spokesperson Koo Byung-sam stated, "We urge the North Korean regime to wake up from the vain dream that such provocations will protect their regime and to sincerely prioritize the North Korean people and take the right path toward the future of the Korean Peninsula as soon as possible."

According to Korean Central News Agency on the same day, North Korea's Missile General Bureau announced, "On the afternoon of the 14th, we conducted a test launch of a mid-to-long-range solid-fuel ballistic missile equipped with a hypersonic maneuvering guided warhead (warhead section)." The Missile General Bureau stated that "the test launch was successfully conducted." It explained that the purpose of this test launch was to verify "the gliding and maneuvering flight characteristics of the mid-to-long-range hypersonic maneuvering guided warhead" and to confirm the reliability of "newly developed multi-stage high-power solid-fuel engines."

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