“It is a message sent to the United States,” an area specialist analyzes

The North Korean ballistic missile launch that flew over Japan last night is above all else A message has been sent to the United States.analysis Tuesday, Oct. 4 in franceinfo by Antoine Bondaz, director of the Korea Program at the Foundation for Strategic Research and Educator at Sciences Po.

franceinfo: Is it because of this militia’s flight over Japan that US President Joe Biden spoke of a “strong” response?

Antoine Bondaz: Yes, this is the seventh time that this type of missile has been launched by North Korea. We are talking here about the Hwasong-12, which has a theoretical range of 4,000 to 5,000 km. This time it reached 4700 km. This is the third time it has flown over Japan, after two previous aircraft in 2017. So what worries Japan in particular is not this new shot, but rather the doubling of tests. Since the past 10 years and Kim Jong Un’s rise to power, we have been conducting nearly two hundred ballistic tests.

And if Joe Biden spoke so quickly, would he be concerned about a direct strike on the United States?

This type of missile cannot reach the continental United States. On the other hand, it is theoretically possible to reach the island of Guam in the Pacific Ocean. An American island where the Navy is very present. So this shooting is a message that was sent to the United States, not to Japan. The flight over Japan was explained above all because North Korea wanted to test the maximum range of its missiles. To do this, you have to reach the Pacific Ocean and thus fly over Japan. This snapshot is North Korea’s desire to develop both technically and practically. Over the past four years, the country has developed precision offensive capabilities capable of penetrating Korean and Japanese missile defenses. North Korea is a desire to change the balance of power in the region.

And there is Kim Jong-un who is one of the few leaders who openly supported Vladimir Putin…

Yes, there is clear support for the vote against the March 2022 UN General Assembly resolution condemning the invasion of Ukraine. In July, North Korea was the only country to recognize the breakaway republics of eastern Ukraine. But the real connection to the Russian invasion is that North Korea benefits from three directions. The first is to downplay its ballistic tests. The second is the international community’s rightly distracted focus on Ukraine. The third is the division of this international community: in May 2022, Russia and China vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning North Korea’s ballistic tests. The first since 2006.