North Korea Releases Ominous New Photos

A smiling Kim Jong Un was pictured overseeing the launch of a new anti-ship missile this week in a North Korean state media report that also warned against any “adventurous attempt” by the South at their disputed maritime border.

The missiles were fired into the East Sea—the Koreas’ term for the Sea of Japan—and traveled for at least 1,400 seconds before striking a “target boat,” the official Korean Central News Agency said on Thursday about the test on February 14.

Pyongyang’s sixth major launch event of the year was detected by Seoul at around 9 a.m. local time on Wednesday, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. It said “several unknown cruise missiles” were monitored northeast of the North’s port city of Wonsan, which is also home to a naval base.

In this image released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency on February 15, 2024, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, front, oversees the test firing of a surface-to-sea missile on February 14 at an undisclosed location. It was Pyongyang’s sixth missile launch event of the year. KCNA

In this image released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency on February 15, 2024, North Korean forces test-fire of a surface-to-sea missile on February 14 at an undisclosed location. It was Pyongyang’s sixth missile launch event of the year. KCNA

In this image released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency on February 15, 2024, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, right, oversees the test firing of a surface-to-sea missile on February 14 at an undisclosed location. It was Pyongyang’s sixth missile launch event of the year. KCNA

North Korea’s leader earlier this year played up his opposition to the Northern Limit Line in the West Sea, or the Yellow Sea. The demarcation line was drawn up by the U.S.-led U.N. Command in 1953 at the end of the Korean War, but the North claims waters in areas under the South’s control.

If Seoul “violates even 0.001 millimeter of our territorial land, air and waters, it will be considered a war provocation,” Kim told his country’s rubber-stamp parliament during the same session in which he abandoned inter-Korea reconciliation by labeling the South his regime’s “principal enemy.”

This week’s test firing of the Padasuri-6, or “sea eagle,” was accompanied by Kim’s new directive to increase North Korea’s military firepower in the waters north of the South’s islands of Yeonpyeong and Baekryeong, where shelling by the North’s forces in 2010 killed four people.

“He set forth the ways for reliably defending the maritime border by deploying surface-to-sea missile forces in the forward area and strengthening them to the maximum and thoroughly containing and frustrating the adventurous attempt of the enemy navy,” the KCNA quoted Kim as saying.

“He said that it is not important how many lines exist in the West Sea,” the state news outlet said. “What is clear is that when the enemy intrudes into the maritime border recognized by us, we will regard it as an encroachment upon the sovereignty of the [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] and an armed provocation against it.”

In this image released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency on February 15, 2024, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, tours an unidentified “major munitions factory” at an undisclosed location. Kim urged factory workers to ramp up munitions production. KCNA

In this image released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency on February 15, 2024, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, front right, tours an unidentified “major munitions factory” at an undisclosed location. Kim urged factory workers to ramp up munitions production. KCNA

A separate KCNA release on Thursday said the North Korean supreme leader toured an unidentified “major munitions factory,” which he had ordered on a previous visit to increase production.

The latest cruise missile launches came after the United States and its allies accused Russia of firing ballistic missiles against Ukraine that had been acquired from North Korea, violating U.N. Security Council resolutions that prohibit the trading of arms with Pyongyang.

Kim and President Vladimir Putin pledged to cooperate more closely on a range of matters when they met last September, and Seoul believes Pyongyang’s spy satellite was launched late last year with the Kremlin’s help.

Moscow has repeatedly denied receiving missiles or artillery shells from Pyongyang. In January, Britain sent satellite photos to the United Nations that allegedly depicted arms shipments from North Korea to Russia.

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