South Korea has imposed sanctions on North Korean officials following Pyongyang's latest intercontinental ballistic missile launch amid concerns about the North receiving weapons technology from Russia.
South Korea’s foreign ministry on Friday said the government has imposed sanctions on 11 North Korean individuals and four entities in retaliation against Pyongyang’s first missile launch in almost a year.
Pyongyang confirmed the launch monitored by leader Kim Jong-un on Thursday after its neighbours detected the firing of a suspected new, more agile weapon capable of targeting mainland US.
The North on Friday claimed the missile that higher than any previous missile launched by the Kim government was Hwasong-19.
The launch was seen as a bid to grab American attention ahead of next week’s presidential election amid mounting Western criticism against the North allegedly sending thousands of soldiers to Russia to fight Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
The North’s state news agency KCNA lauded the launch as “the world’s strongest strategic missile”.
A spokesperson for South Korea’s unification ministry said the launch could have been for several purposes, including demonstrating military technology, pressuring Washington, and diverting attention from the North’s deployment of troops to Moscow.
North Korean foreign minister Choe Son Hui, during her Moscow visit, accused Washington and Seoul of plotting a nuclear strike against her country.
She did not provide evidence to back her assertion, but spoke of regular consultations between Washington and Seoul at which she alleged such plotting took place.
Ms Choe said the situation on the Korean Peninsula could become “explosive” any moment as she told her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov that Pyongyang needed to strengthen its nuclear arsenal.
She said the North needed to perfect its readiness to deliver a retaliatory nuclear strike if necessary.
North Korea was sanctioned by the UN security council in 2006 and the measures were steadily strengthened to halt its development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
The West believes by sending troops to Russia, the North could be rewarded with technology that could advance the threat posed by Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and missile programme.
Thursday’s launch drew swift condemnation from Washington and its allies in South Korea, Japan and Europe, as well as the United Nations secretary-general.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said the “test fire is an appropriate military action that fully meets the purpose of informing the rivals”.
He added: “I affirm that the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] will never change its line of bolstering up its nuclear forces.”
South Korea said it was the longest ballistic missile test by the North with a flight time of 87 minutes. The missile took off on a sharply lofted trajectory from near Pyongyang and splashed down about 200km west of Japan’s Okushiri island, off Hokkaido.
Japan said the missile climbed high into the atmosphere and flew a distance of 1,000km, reportedly setting new records of the country’s missile capabilities.
The test was conducted just as the US said that North Korea had sent over 10,000 soldiers to Russia to be deployed on the frontline.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken on Thursday claimed that about 8,000 of the Korean soldiers are positioned in Kursk, the border region where Russian forces have been fighting off a Ukrainian incursion since August.
South Korea and allies have urged the North to withdraw its forces from Russia.
“The missile continues to underwrite the growing credibility of North Korea’s strategic deterrent capabilities,” Ankit Panda, a senior fellow at the US-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told the Associated Press.
He added that Mr Kim appeared specifically interested in communicating that message to the US.
