North Korea fires projectile after South Korean President's apology

By Soo-Hyang Choi

 

North Korea fired an unidentified projectile on Wednesday, South Korea’s military said, just days after South Korean President Lee Jae Myung expressed regret over an incident involving drones that crossed the border into the North’s airspace. 

 

Pyongyang launched at least one projectile toward waters off its east coast, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said. Further details were not immediately available.

 

The launch took place days after a North Korean statement conveyed leader Kim Jong Un’s rare praise for Lee in response to his apology over the drones. Seoul touted the messages exchanged by the two leaders as a “meaningful step forward” for their peaceful coexistence.

 

 

In the statement on Monday, Kim’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, had said the North Korean leader referred to Lee’s apology as “a manifestation of a frank and broad-minded man’s attitude.”

 

North Korea, however, later dismissed Seoul’s interpretation of the statement as a “hope-filled dream reading.” 

 

“The thematic core of the press statement was a clear warning,” a senior North Korean official said in a separate statement Tuesday.

 

“The identity of the ROK, the enemy state most hostile to the DPRK, can never change with any words or conduct,” the official said.

 

Wednesday’s launch also comes a day after North Korea fired a projectile in what may have been a failed weapons test. The type of the projectile tested wasn’t immediately clear but Yonhap News said it might have been a ballistic missile.

 

That projectile — fired on Tuesday — flew eastward before showing signs of anomaly early in flight and disappearing, Yonhap said. “The South Korean and US intelligence authorities are analyzing its specifications,” South Korea’s Defense Ministry said. 

 

The back-to-back projectile launches highlight the challenges facing the Lee Jae Myung government even as he takes a series of measures aimed at reducing tensions and improving ties with its nuclear-armed neighbor.

 

The Kim regime has largely ignored the overtures while urging Washington to recognize the country as a nuclear power.