NOT STAYING QUIET
The launch comes just days after a Russian veto at the United Nations ended UN expert monitoring of North Korean sanctions violations, amid a probe into alleged arms transfers between Moscow and Pyongyang.
North Korea has yet to comment on the development.
It also comes just over a week before South Korea votes in a general election, in which the party of hawkish President Yoon Suk Yeol, who has taken a tough line with Pyongyang, is seeking to win back control of the parliament.
“The Kim regime prioritises advancing its military capabilities and doesn’t care to stay quiet during the South Korean legislative election campaign,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.
“But firing an intermediate-range missile lacks the shock value of a full-range ICBM launch or a nuclear test, so it’s unlikely to swing any National Assembly seats.”
Pyongyang has been under a raft of sanctions since its second nuclear test in 2009, but the development of its nuclear and weapons programmes has continued unabated.
So far this year, the nuclear-armed North has declared South Korea its “principal enemy”, jettisoned agencies dedicated to reunification and outreach, and threatened war over “even 0.001mm” of territorial infringement.
Last month, the United States and South Korea staged one of their major annual joint military exercises, prompting angry retorts and live-fire drills from nuclear-armed Pyongyang, which condemns all such exercises as rehearsals for invasion.
Seoul is one of Washington’s key regional allies, and the United States has stationed about 27,000 American soldiers in the South to help protect it against North Korea.
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