Thursday, September 30, 2021
After North Korea’s missile test
UN calls emergency meeting
North Korea reports the successful test of a hypersonic missile, a projectile with which missile defense systems reach their limits. International observers fear that the situation in East Asia will worsen. The UN Security Council convenes an emergency meeting.
The UN Security Council holds an emergency meeting this Thursday on the situation in North Korea. As the news agency AFP learned from diplomatic circles, the meeting requested by the USA, Great Britain and France is to take place in the morning (New York time) behind closed doors.
North Korea said it had successfully tested a hypersonic missile on Tuesday. State media hailed the test of the Hwasong-8 missile as a move of “great strategic importance”. North Korea wants to expand its defense capacities by a “thousandfold”, wrote the official news agency KCNA.
Hypersonic describes speeds above five times the speed of sound. Hypersonic missiles are also more flexible than conventional missiles, which makes their destruction by missile defense systems very difficult. According to the KCNA, the development of a hypersonic missile was one of the five “top priorities” of the Pyongyang leadership’s five-year armaments plan.
Both North and South Korea are currently expanding their arsenals. Observers fear an arms race in East Asia, which could also affect China and Japan. The internationally largely isolated North Korea is subject to strict US and UN sanctions because of its nuclear and missile program.
Meanwhile, according to media reports, the North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un has announced the imminent reopening of communication channels with South Korea. The opening of the channels early in October should contribute to efforts to improve relations with the South and to achieve peace on the Korean peninsula, the South Korean agency Yonhap quoted from a speech by Kim at the People’s Assembly in Pyongyang on Thursday.