Debris from failed North Korean missile test reportedly lands on capital Pyongyang

According to neighboring South Korea’s military command, the projectile, thought to be a ballistic missile, appeared to explode less than 20 kilometers after it was launched from Sunan airport. Debris is said to have fallen in and around the suburbs of Pyongyang, the capital seventeen kilometers from the airport where more than 3 million people live. The specialized South Korean news site NK News reports that eyewitnesses saw a reddish ball at the end of a zigzagging plume of smoke above the city.

In a previous failed test of a medium-range missile at another location, a projectile also landed in a densely populated area in 2017. Rocket fuel can also cause significant health damage.

Two birds with one stone

Rockets were launched from Sunan Airport in February and March this year. North Korea says these are harmless tests of its own space satellite, but South Korean and US defense sources cling to experiments with a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) system.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un may be killing two birds with one stone by testing ‘reconnaissance satellites’: his wish list includes both his own spy satellite and a better intercontinental missile system, and the launches contribute to the achievement of both military ambitions. North Korea has been successfully testing ICBMs capable of reaching the United States since 2017, but this year Kim broke all records with ten launches.

After North Korea’s Politburo announced in January that North Korea was suspending a self-imposed moratorium on nuclear testing and intercontinental missiles, the United States and South Korea plan to test the newest and largest country’s ICBMs. This so-called Hwasong-17, a 25-meter-long monster missile that can travel with multiple warheads and a distance of 15,000 kilometers, was first seen at a military parade in 2020, but did not not yet fully tested.

Important anniversary

Trials over the past few months, likely testing parts of the Hwasong-17, could serve as preparation for a larger test, scheduled for April 15. It is the 110th birthday of Kim’s grandfather, Kim Il Sung, the first member of the Kim dynasty to establish the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. South Korean experts therefore expect smaller trials to prepare for the Hwasong-17 test as this important anniversary approaches.

Besides commemorating his grandfather with a new type of ICBM, Kim is also keen to draw attention to the South Korean president elected last week. Yoon Suk-yeol but above all that of the American government, which has so far ignored it. The negotiation process on an official peace treaty as the Korean peninsula has stalled, as have efforts by the Trump administration to get Kim to give up his nuclear weapons. Pyongyang insists U.S. sanctions must be lifted before North Korea comes to the table, while the United States wants to see verifiable signs of dismantling the nuclear program first.

The airport as a test base

On Wednesday, the official KCNA news agency published a photo of a broadly smiling Kim Jong-un in a suburb of Pyongyang. It is unclear if this photo is related to the most recent missile test. Since 2017, Sunan Airport, which even before the pandemic was only used for a handful of flights from Russia and China, has played an increasingly important role in testing key weapons systems. . In 2016, a building was erected next to the airport which, according to defense specialists, is large enough to house an ICBM. Predecessors of the Hwasong-17 monster rocket were also tested at Sunan Airport.

Analysts believe Kim will have his most valuable weapons systems developed, stored and tested near the capital so he can inspect progress without having to travel with complicated security measures that attract the attention of foreign observers.

Incidentally, earlier this month the main nuclear test facility Punggye-Ri, which was partially destroyed in front of the international press in 2018 to convince the world of Kim’s promise to stop nuclear testing, was reportedly revived with reconstruction and new construction of buildings. In August last year, the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency said the Yongbyon nuclear reactor, where North Korea was making plutonium, also appeared to have started up.