N.KOREA SILENT ABOUT RECENT MISSILE LAUNCH

[Anchor Lead]

North Korea is still silent about its recent missile launches, including an SLBM that it fired on Saturday. This stands in contrast to the regime’s usual practice of reporting on such events the following day through the state media. The outside world is speculating on North Korea’s intentions.

[Pkg]

North Korea bragged about the missile tests it had conducted earlier this year through state media on the following day. The reports had always justified the tests as a means to defend the country.

[Soundbite] N. Korea Central TV(Jan. 18) : “It was carried out to selectively inspect the tactical missiles and verify the accuracy of the weapon system.”

However, the North hasn’t yet reported on the SLBM test that South Korean and U.S. militaries detected on Saturday. The regime has also been keeping mum about the ICBM launched on May 4th. They have broken the practice of releasing missile launch photos on the very next day twice in a row. However, Pyongyang did not release any reports about a new ICBM that exploded in the air immediately after its launch in March. The prolonged silence about the missile launches could mean that the recent tests failed or were not satisfactory. In fact, the missile fired on May 4th had a flight range too short for an ICBM and the latest SLBM appeared to have flown too low for its range. But since the two missiles were all aimed at the United States, the North could have under-calibrated the launches on purpose. Subsequently, the South Korean military is still analyzing the launches without concluding them as failures. Some experts project that North Korea may be monitoring U.S. reactions after making a noticeable achievement.

[Soundbite] Prof. Kim Jin-ah(Hankuk Univ. of Foreign Studies) : “If N. Korea plans to report on the SLBM launch after seeing U.S. reactions, they are waiting to synchronize their press release to coincide with U.S. media reports.”

North Korea initiated a five-year strategic weapons development plan last year. It is possible that Pyongyang is waiting for a chance to play up the development results by releasing them all at once.