North Korea fuels bid for ‘new Cold War’ with failed missile launch after Russia treaty

Pyongyang’s suspected hypersonic ballistic missile test has analysts worried the regime is inflaming tensions to skirt sanctions

Reading Time:3 minutes

Contrails believed to be created by a North Korean hypersonic missile test are seen off Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea, on Wednesday. Photo: AP

Published: 7:00am, 27 Jun 2024

North Korea looks to be banking on a “new Cold War” to evade sanctions and bolster its nuclear arsenal following a suspected advanced missile launched by an emboldened Pyongyang.

Analysts say Pyongyang is poised to escalate confrontation with Seoul in the wake of its cooperation treaty with Russia, its trash-balloon campaign targeting the South and a massive “hate America” rally to mark the anniversary of the Korean war.

The latest missile, fired on Wednesday from Pyongyang, flew 250km before exploding mid-air over the Sea of Japan, or East Sea, off the North’s port of Wonsan, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

“North Korea fired a ballistic missile from Pyongyang to the East Sea at 5.30am this morning. The missile is believed to have failed,” the South Korean military chiefs said in a statement.

In response to the launch, South Korea’s Marine Corps on Wednesday resumed a full-scale live-fire exercise on islands near the disputed inter-Korean sea border in the Yellow Sea for the first time in seven years.

The resumption came after the South fully suspended the 2018 inter-Korean tension reduction accord in early June, which called for a ban on hostile activities near the border.