U.S. officials are privately pleased by North Korea’s seven missile launches last week, as they highlighted the danger posed by the communist regime in Pyongyang and the need for missile defenses.
The missile launches were carried out with no advance warning and were fired into a commercial air corridor used by numerous trans-Pacific airlines. One of the missiles crossed the flight path of a South Korean Asiana Airlines jet shortly before the plane passed through the area off the Russian coast of the Sea of Japan.
U.S. defense officials said the missile launches were an impressive show of joint missile operations. “This is not a small thing that they did with this level of activity over this relatively short period of time,” said one official.
“So while it could be get people’s attention, that’s fine and well, but it also was a pretty aggressive demonstration of a capability.”
North Korean missile capabilities are not impressive by U.S. or even Chinese standards. “But by Third World standards, it’s impressive,” the official said.
The tests showed that the North Koreans have attained a certain level of sophistication relating to the missiles themselves, but also that the North Korean military can organize and mount a demonstration of its power.
Intelligence officials are still tallying the types of missiles fired but they included several Scud-type short-range missiles and at least two medium-range Nodongs. Both types of missiles were fired from mobile transporter-erector launchers.
The long-range Taepodong-2 failed after 42 seconds in flight.
The official said the missile launches were significant also in terms of their coercive capabilities, namely for South Korea, which does not have a ballistic missile defense or a commitment to build one.
The South Koreans do not even have Patriot ground-based missile defenses. But Pentagon officials hope that it will prompt Seoul to quickly purchase U.S. missile defenses, like Patriot PAC-3s, currently deployed at U.S. air bases.
Tokyo is expected to accelerate its missile defenses, which will include deploying the U.S. Navy’s new Standard Missile-3 on its two Aegis warships.
A Pentagon official said the North Koreans also hope to use the recent missile launches as a marketing tool for their foreign missile sales.
