North Korea launches new intercontinental ballistic missile designed to threaten US
Seoul (AP/PTI): North Korea launched a new intercontinental ballistic missile Thursday in its first test in almost a year of a weapon designed to threaten the US mainland and occurring days ahead of the US election.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered the missile test and was at the launch site, calling the launch “an appropriate military action” to show North Korea's resolve to respond to its enemies' moves that has threatened the North's safety, according to its Defence Ministry.
The United States, South Korea and Japan had also identified the weapon as an ICBM and condemned the launch as raising tensions. The launch came as Washington warned that North Korean troops in Russian uniforms are heading toward Ukraine, likely to augment Russian forces and join the war.
North Korea confirmed the launch hours after its neighbours detected the firing of what they suspected was a new, more agile weapon targeting the mainland US. The statement was unusually quick since North Korea usually describes its weapons tests a day after they occur.
“I affirm that the DPRK will never change its line of bolstering up its nuclear forces,” Kim said, according to a North Korean Defence Ministry statement carried by state media. DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official name.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea could have tested a new, solid-fuelled long-range ballistic missile. Missiles with built-in solid propellants are easier to move and hide and can be launched quicker than liquid-propellant weapons.
JCS spokesperson Lee Sung Joon said the launch was possibly timed to the US election in an attempt to strengthen North Korea's future bargaining power. He said the North Korean missile was launched on a high angle, apparently to avoid neighbouring countries.
Japanese Defence Minister Gen Nakatani told reporters the missile's flight duration of 86 minutes and its maximum altitude of more than 7,000 kilometres exceeded corresponding data from previous North Korean missile tests. Lee, the South Korean military spokesperson, said South Korea has a similar assessment on Thursday's launch.
KCNA said the flight characteristics of this launch exceeded those registered for its previous missile launches but did not detail the differences.
US National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett had called the launch “a flagrant violation” of multiple UN Security Council resolutions that “needlessly raises tensions and risks destabilising the security situation in the region.” Savett said the US will take all necessary measures to ensure the security of the American homeland and its South Korean and Japanese allies.
Both South Korea and Japan condemned the North Korean launch for posing a threat to international peace and they said they're closely coordinating with the US over the latest North Korean weapons test. Lee said that South Korea and the US plan “sufficient” bilateral military exercises and trilateral ones involving Japan in response to North Korean threats.
Lee said the missile may have been fired from a 12-axle launch vehicle, the North's largest mobile launch platform that it disclosed in September. The vehicle's unveiling had prompted speculation North Korea could be developing an ICBM that is bigger than its existing ones.
North Korea has made strides in its missile technologies in recent years, but many foreign experts believe the country has yet to acquire a functioning nuclear-armed missile that can strike the US mainland. They say North Korea likely possesses short-range missiles that can deliver nuclear strikes across all of South Korea.
One of the technological hurdles North Korea still faces is for its weapons to be capable of surviving the harsh conditions of atmospheric reentry. South Korean officials and experts earlier said North Korea may test-launch a ICBM on a normal angle to verify that capability.
Lee said a high-angle launch like Thursday's test cannot examine a missile's reentry vehicle technology. He said that more analysis is required to find why North Korea didn't conduct a standard-trajectory launch on Thursday.
South Korea's military intelligence agency told lawmakers Wednesday that North Korea was close to test-firing a long-range missile capable of reaching the United States and has also likely completed preparations for its seventh nuclear test.
North Korea last test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile in December 2023, when it launched the solid-fueled Hwasong-18.
In the past two years, Kim has used Russia's invasion of Ukraine as a window to ramp up weapons tests and threats while also expanding military cooperation with Moscow. South Korea, the US and others have recently accused North Korea of dispatching thousands of troops to support Russia's warfighting against Ukraine. They've said North Korea has already shipped artillery, missiles and other convectional arms to Russia.
North Korea's possible participation in the Ukraine war would mark a serious escalation. South Korea, the US and their partners also worry about what North Korea could get from Russia in return for joining Russia's war against Ukraine.
Aside from his soldiers' wages, experts say Kim Jong Un likely hopes to get high-tech Russian technology that can perfect his nuclear-capable missiles and build a reliable space-based surveillance system. Kim could also want Russian fighter jets and help to modernize North Korea's conventional weapons.
On Wednesday, Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said North Korean troops wearing Russian uniforms and carrying Russian equipment are moving toward Ukraine, in what he called a dangerous and destabilising development. Austin said “the likelihood is pretty high” that Russia will use the troops in combat.
Austin spoke at a news conference in Washington with South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol last week raised the possibility of supplying Ukraine with weapons while stressing that his government “won't sit idle” over North Korea's reported troop dispatch.
South Korea said Wednesday that North Korea has sent more than 11,000 troops to Russia and that more than 3,000 of them have been moved close to battlefields in western Russia.
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Forces in and outside India trying to destabilise country; need to unmask urban Naxals: PM Modi
Ekta Nagar (PTI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said some forces in and outside India are trying to destabilise the country and portray a negative image of the nation in the world, underscoring the need to “identify urban Naxals and unmask them”.
He was addressing a gathering near the iconic Statue of Unity at Ekta Nagar in Gujarat’s Narmada district after paying floral tributes to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel on the birth anniversary of India’s first home minister.
Since 2014, Sardar Patel’s birth anniversary has been celebrated on October 31 as ‘Rashtriya Ekta Diwas’, or National Unity Day.
“Due to India’s increasing strengths and capabilities, some forces in and outside are trying to destabilise the country and spread anarchy. They want to hurt India’s economic interests. They want to send a wrong message to foreign investors by portraying a negative image of the nation in the world,” the PM said.
Without taking names, Modi said “these people” are also targeting India’s armed forces through a “disinformation campaign” and trying to ignite sentiments of separatism in the Army.
“These people are trying to divide the country on caste lines. Their only goal is to weaken the Indian society as well as people’s unity,” he said.
They don’t want to see India as a developed country because what suits them is the politics of a weaker and poor India, he said, adding that such “dirty politics” went on for nearly five decades.
Modi alleged that though these forces always talk about democracy and the Constitution, they are actually working to divide the country.
The opposition led by the Congress has repeatedly targeted PM Modi claiming that India’s democracy and Constitution are “under attack” by the ruling BJP.
The PM urged the people to identify this nexus of “urban Naxals”, which he said is trying to break the country.
As Naxalism is ending in jungles, a new model of urban Naxals is raising its head, he said.
“We need to identify such people who are dreaming of breaking the country. We have to fight these forces. Today urban Naxals target even those who say that you will remain safe if you remain united. We have to identify urban Naxals and unmask them,” he said.
He said due to the government’s efforts in the past 10 years, Naxalism is counting its last breath in India.
Recalling Sardar Patel’s contribution, Modi said though there were people who were skeptical of India’s unification after the independence, Sardar Patel made it possible. He added that the country will celebrate Patel’s 150th birth anniversary for the next two years.
According to Modi, every scheme floated by his government reflects the “spirit of unity”.
He said benefits were given to every citizen without discrimination, be it Har Ghar Jal, Ayushman Bharat or PM Awas Yojna.
Modi said that after the success of the ‘one nation, one tax’ initiative in the form of GST (Goods and Services Tax), ‘one nation, one ration card’, and ‘one nation, one health insurance’ in the form of Ayushman Bharat scheme, his government is now working on ‘one nation, one election’.
This approach will strengthen democracy and give optimum outcomes on available resources, he said.
“We are also moving towards the implementation of ‘one nation, one secular civil code’. Sardar Patel’s message of unity in society is at the core of this decision. This will eliminate discrimination and strengthen unity among people,” said the PM.
Referring to the abrogation of Article 370, PM Modi said it stood as a barrier in implementing the Constitution in Jammu and Kashmir, where assembly elections were held recently.
“For the first time in 75 years, the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir has taken oath on the Constitution. I see it as a very important milestone for India's unity. I salute the people of Jammu and Kashmir who gave respect to the Constitution,” he said.
About the ongoing wars in different parts of the world, Modi said India has emerged as ‘Vishwa Bandhu’ (friend of the world).
“India has emerged as Vishwa Bandhu when relations between different countries are getting strained. When differences between nations are growing today, countries are coming closer to India. A new history is being written. The world is watching how India is bringing solutions to its decades-old challenges,” said the PM.
