US, Koreas play down weapons test

SEOUL: At least one of the weapons North Korea fired at the weekend had many of the hallmarks of a missile, but that was the one word conspicuously missing from descriptions of the tests by Washington, Seoul, and even Pyongyang.North Korea wanted to express to the United States its frustration over the breakdown of the Hanoi summit, when the two sides clashed over sanctions and the extent of Pyongyang’s nuclear concessions, analysts say.South Korea had brokered the now-deadlocked nuclear talks between the US and North Korea, and the White House had described the absence of a missile test for more than a year as a major foreign policy success.So Seoul, Washington and Pyongyang all have an incentive to play down the nature of the weekend drills."President Trump’s biggest North Korea policy achievement has been the suspension of Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile tests since late 2017," Hong Min, a senior researcher at the state-run Korea Institute for National Unification, told AFP."But if we declare the drill involved ballistic missiles at this point, it would all but shatter his self-touted success." North Korea’s official KCNA news agency said the Saturday drills involved "long-range multiple rocket launchers" -- which are not targeted by UN sanctions resolutions -- and unspecified "tactical guided weapons".But unlike rockets, missiles have guidance systems, and analysts said the images released by state media showed a device similar to Russia’s single-stage Iskander missile. It appeared to be one displayed at a North Korean military parade last year, just as the diplomatic rapprochement on the peninsula began.South Korea’s military initially said the North had fired "short-range missiles" but within an hour was describing them as "projectiles". They had a range of around 70 to 240 kilometres and fell into the sea, it said, but further analysis was required on whether they were short-range ballistic missiles.

from The News International - World http://bit.ly/2Yc7jXV