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Seoul, South Korea (CNN) - By clicking on a series of slides that show recent North Korean missile tests, South Korean military defense expert Choi Kang reacts in a tone that suggests he is Fearful and impressed.
"This is really an imaginative or creative way to use missiles," said Choi, former director of the National Security Council of South Korea and now vice president of the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, a prominent group of conservative experts in Seoul.
Experts say the latest missile tests from the Kim Jong Un regime show that Pyongyang is, for the first time, actively testing weapons to target weak points in the advanced missile defense system that protects the US. USA, Japan and South Korea.
Kim Jong Un, leader of North Korea.
Before resuming ballistic missile tests in May, North Korea had not fired any missiles since November 2017. That pause was a crucial factor in helping to create the right conditions for the first meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump. , and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in June 2018.
Trump and Kim have met on two other occasions since then, but it seems that little progress has been made between the two sides. Trump has downplayed the importance of the recent increase in North Korea's missile tests, highlighting the fact that Kim only agreed to stop testing longer-range missiles and nuclear bombs. However, the releases violate the resolutions of the UN Security Council and threaten South Korea and Japan.
"Kim Jong Un has been, you know, quite straight with me, I think," President Trump told reporters on August 23. “And we will see what is happening, we will see what happens. He likes to test missiles, but we never restrict short-range missiles, we'll see what happens. Many nations test those missiles. ”
However, experts fear that these tests show that Pyongyang is much more advanced in its weapons development than previously thought. Theoretically, missiles can be activated in the short term and fly faster than their predecessors.
Some warn that these new skills could be applied to larger-range missiles that can reach the continental United States.
"It seems to me that North Korea has a very, very strong missile capacity and ... (is able) to deploy all missiles in a very short period of time," Choi said.
In the sights
North Korea seemed to have suspended its weapons program for 17 months to allow negotiations, but the break was broken on May 4 when it tested a new weapons system.
The purpose of the launch, North Korean state media reported, was "to inspect the operational capacity and accuracy of the attack service performance of high-caliber and long-range multi-rocket launchers and guided tactical weapons."
That was only enough to generate concern, but the most revealing series of tests occurred in July, only a few days apart.
Then, North Korea fired a series of short-range missiles at altitudes mostly between 25 kilometers (16 miles) and 50 kilometers (31 miles) at various distances between 220 kilometers (137 miles) and 600 kilometers (373 miles) from Multiple launch sites.
North Korea suggested that the United States and South Korea had provoked the tests with their joint military exercises, which mainly consisted of computer simulations. Pyongyang also exhibited annoyance over the acquisition of F-35 stealth fighter jets by Seoul.
The altitudes of the missiles tested concern Choi and other experts because they indicate that North Korea seems to be pointing to a gap in two missile defense systems: the Patriot missile defense system and the THAAD.
The THAAD system targets missiles in the altitude range of 50 to 150 kilometers (31 to 93 miles), while the Patriot system covers 30 kilometers (19 miles) and below, according to Choi. South Korea is developing something to fill the gap.
Kim Dong-yub, an analyst at the Institute of Far East Studies at Kyungnam University in Seoul, said the tested missiles could evade South Korea's missile defense systems because at those altitudes they would fly too high for the batteries of the Patriot points at them and too low for THAAD to intercept them easily.
Analysts in South Korea believe that North Korea tested at least three types of new weapons: a large-caliber guided multi-launch rocket system, a North Korean equivalent of a Russian Iskander and a "new weapon" tested on August 10 that flew around 400 kilometers
It is not clear if the recent missiles that North Korea has tested are designed to carry nuclear warheads or others.
"Nuclear or not ... these are missiles that threaten our two most important allies and our main allies in Northeast Asia," said retired US Army General Vincent Brooks, a former commander of US forces in Korea. "This has to be something the United States must address."
Brooks commanded the nearly 650,000 US and South Korean soldiers who formed the ROK-US Combined Forces Command, from April 2016 to November 2018, one of the most active periods on the Korean peninsula in recent memory.
The tense relationship culminated with North Korea testing an intercontinental ballistic missile on November 28, 2017, which Pyongyang said could reach the continental United States. After that release, Brooks began to count cautiously the days until the next test. He continued to do so after retiring and observes the events on the Korean peninsula from his home in Austin, Texas. Your account was stopped after 520 days, on May 4.
While analysts fear North Korea's recent military improvements, Brooks expressed confidence in the alliance's ability to defend the peninsula, although he refused to reveal specific defense capabilities. He also said the evidence makes it easier for the United States and its allies to "understand the capabilities" of Pyongyang's weapons systems.
"I am sure that the military commandos there, in Korea and beyond, are thinking what exactly we can do with this," Brooks said. Although for now his count of days without provocation is on hold, Brooks still hopes for a peaceful resolution.
“I look forward to the days when Korea can be free of external influences that prevent it from determining its own path; I look forward to the days when Korea can be unified, and I want them to achieve it and I will be sincere because that's what I want, ”he said.
CNN's Joshua Berlinger contributed to this report
Missile Launch
