North Korea Test-Fired Ground-to-Ship Missiles for Two Consecutive Days

Following the test-firing of October 20, North Korea reportedly carried out a test again with ground-to-ship missile into the East Sea around 8:00 am on Tuesday, October 21, according to Asahi Shinbun and other Japanese press, quoting the source of Japanese Ministry of State for Defense.

The missile fired this day is the same type as the one on October 20 and is assumed to be an improved model of the “Silkworm” missile with a maximum range of 100 kilometers.

Having previously set up a limitation in the East Sea from October 17 through 29, it is observed that North Korea seems to be currently undergoing military training.

A Japanese government official presumed that the North made an additional experiment on ground-to-ship missile in order to check its efficiency after having failed in trials of the same type of missiles on February 24 and March 10 early this year.

However, there is another viewpoint that North Korea must have expressed a form of demonstration against the ongoing APEC discussion on the North’s nuclear problem, which is being held in Bangkok, Thailand.

Japanese Minister of State for Defense Shigeru Ishiba said in a press conference, “It is not as threatening as the ballistic missile towards Japan.”

Meanwhile, regarding the Japanese statement, an official of the Defense Ministry said, “According to the source from military information agency, there was no test-firing by North Korea on October 21.”

Hun-Joo Cho hanscho@donga.com