Defying Sanctions, Suspected Ballistic Missiles Test Conducted by North Korea

Offers of talks with Washington continue to be ignored by Pyongyang.

A missile test being conducted by North Korea. 

(Photo: Twitter/@nknewsorg)

South Korea said on Monday, 18 January, two missiles, suspected to be ballistic missiles, were launched by North Korea, BBC reported.

Without providing any further details, the Prime Minister’s Office in Japan also said that it had detected a possible ballistic missile launch.

If indeed the case, it would be Kim Jong-un regime's fourth weapons test for the month.

Offers of talks with the United States continue to be ignored by North Korea.

Pyongyang says that Washington must first let go of what the former calls a "hostile policy", a reference to the harsh sanctions it faces and the joint US-South Korea military exercises in the Korean Peninsula.

The missile tests are being conducted despite harsh international sanctions and UN resolutions that prevent Pyongyang from doing the same.

Some of these tests include those of hypersonic missiles.

There has been no politically significant development in either North Korean politics or the geopolitics of the Korean Peninsula, which can explain why these launches are being conducted.

Kim Jong-un however, has "domestic considerations".

Ankit Panda, an analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace told the BBC that "at a time of economic difficulty, these launches allow him to convey that national defence priorities will not fall by the wayside".

North Korea was one of the first countries to close its borders when the COVID-19 pandemic began, and has also cut off trade with its main economic and political ally, China.

(With inputs from BBC.)