On Tuesday, Oct. 9th, North Korea made a statement saying that their weapons were capable of reaching the U.S. Possible strike-zones of the North Korean missiles were stated to be “not only the bases of the puppet forces and the U.S. imperialist aggression forces’ bases in the inviolable land of Korea, but also Japan, Guam and the U.S. mainland,” by the Korean Central News Agency. The claim was made after South Korea announced a development with the US on extending missile range for their country.
In 1953, an armistice was signed by North and South Korea, effectively ending the 1950-1953 Korean War. However, a peace treaty was never officially signed, therefore, a state of war still exists between the two Koreas. The statement made by Pyongyang has been issued after a weapons-test run in April, when the North fired a long-range rocket, therefore developing a state of tension between the two countries. However, analysts have begun to question the statement made on the range of North Korea’s missiles.
“That’s been a desire or an objective, politically, for North Korean leadership for quite some time. But they have not demonstrated that capability. To acquire it requires a lot of development and testing. And considering what they’ve done so far … I don’t find that credible. But I do think they’re working toward acquiring that capability,” said Daniel Pinkston of the International Crisis Group’s North East Asia Program.
However, analysts also stated that the statement released is an unsurprising response to South Korea’s announcement of cooperating with the United States in extending the range of the ballistic missiles. ”
What else can they say? It was politically impossible for them not to react,” said professor Andrei Lankov of Kookmin University in Seoul.
The range of South Korea’s missiles have been revised to be from 186 miles to 497 miles, according to South Korean national security adviser Chun Yung-woo.
“The important goal in revising the missile pact is to deter armed provocation from North Korea. If North Korea is to attack or provoke, we are able to incapacitate its nuclear and missile (capabilities) in the early stage. We have guaranteed various capabilities to protect the life and safety of our people,” Chun said.
