The South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) has said that North Korea has launched 2 unidentified projectiles from South Pyongan Province towards the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, today morning, i.e., Tuesday, September 10, 2019.
The South Korea’s JCS confirmed receiving warnings of the 2 launches at 6:53 am and 7:12 am Korean time. The projectiles are believed to have flown a maximum of 330 kms. (205 miles). The South Korea’s JCS said, “Our military is observing the situation and maintaining readiness.”
The launch of projectiles gains significance as it comes hours after North Korea offered to resume denuclearisation talks with the United States (U.S.). The launches are aimed at pressuring the U.S. to offer concessions when the denuclearisation talks start. North Korea wants U.S. to provide it with security guarantees and extensive relief from U.S.-led sanctions in return for limited denuclearization steps.
Few hours before, the First Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, North Korea – Choe Son Hui had said that North Korea is open to resuming denuclearisation talks with U.S. at an agreed date and time in September 2019.
Choe Son Hui said in a statement, “North Korea is willing to sit with the US side for comprehensive discussions of the issues we have so far taken up at the time and place to be agreed late in September.”
She further added, “I believe that the US side will come out with a proposal geared to the interests of the DPRK and the US and based on the calculation method acceptable to us.”
The President of U.S. – Donald Trump has termed the North Korea’s announcement as “interesting.”
Speaking to media, he said, “We’ll see what happens.” He also mentioned, “In the meantime, we have our hostages back, we’re getting the remains of our great heroes back and we’ve had no nuclear testing for a long time.”
After refraining from launching projectiles for more than a year, North Korea has tested 10 missiles since May 2019. The previous launch happened on August 24, 2019. All the previous launches were short-range missile and rocket artillery systems aimed at expanding its ability to attack targets throughout South Korea, including the U.S. military bases there.
Trump had played down on those short-range ballistic missiles saying that he and the Supreme Leader of North Korea – Kim Jong-un have agreed that North Korea will not test long range ballistic missiles.
On Sunday, i.e., September 8, 2019, the U.S. Secretary of State – Mike Pompeo said, “U.S. is disappointed that he is continuing to conduct these short-range tests. We wish that he would stop that.” He also said, “But our mission set at the State Department is very clear: to get back to the table, to present a mechanism by which we can deliver a full, completely denuclearized and verified denuclearized North Korea.”
For the records, in a historic move, Kim Jong-un had met Donald Trump on June 30, 2019 at Panmunjom, the ‘truce village’ on the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), which separates North and South Korea. During the meeting, both the leaders had agreed to resume denuclearisation talks which were halted after the failed meeting at Hanoi in Vietnam in February 2019. It is to be noted that Donald Trump is the first sitting U.S. President to set foot in North Korea.
