The Russian shadow behind the last missile launch by North Korea

In the stalemate of the denuclearization talks with the United States, North Korea on Thursday launched two missiles from its western flank, which would be two short-range ballistic missiles..

They reached a height of about 50 kilometers and they flew to the east – 420 km one and 270 km each – before falling into the Sea of ​​Japan (called East Sea in the two Koreas), according to the South Korean army.

North Korean propaganda showed that the leader Kim Jong-un personally supervised the maneuvers, without specifying the type of weapons and limiting himself to talking about "long-range means". Anyway, the images published by the main North Korean newspaper, Rodong, have attracted the attention of the community of badysts and helped contextualize what had been seen in the previous North Korean version, published last Saturday.

Missiles seen are virtually identical to those tested five days ago. All, very similar to an Iskander short-range land-based, made in Russia. The vision reinforces the hypothesis of several of these experts, who think that they could have been imported into North Korea by Russia or by third parties.

The photos also unveiled another novelty, the mobile shuttles that fired the missiles seem to be manufactured locally and have a crawler pull, an unprecedented badet in the North Korean arsenal so far, which eliminates the problem of the country's terrible roads and allows the vehicle to access hidden areas.

For this, the characteristics of the Iskander, which uses solid fuels (Faster load and more difficult launch times) and it is also a very low flying shot, which gives it a very narrow margin to be intercepted by missile shields deployed in the area such as Aegis or THAAD .

It's a missile that the regime trusts (It flew over the North Korean territory from coast to coast), with much greater mobility on land and in the air, and able to reach all of South Korea.

However, The South Korean staff repeated today President Moon Jae's remarks the day before., arguing that it is too early to determine whether what was fired on Thursday is a ballistic missile and whether Pyongyang has therefore violated UN resolutions that prohibit it from firing projectiles of this nature.

Washington and Tokyo, for their part, have already indicated that ballistic missiles were counted among the weapons tested yesterday. Even like that, the White House wanted to be almost as cautious as Seoul so as not to impede open dialogue with the regime.

US President Donald Trump said Thursday that "nobody is happy" of the launch observed very seriously in North Korea and that he does not think the scheme is "ready to negotiate" yet. In turn, Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney described the North Korean action as a "minor" provocation.

The launch on Thursday also coincided with the visit to Seoul of US Special Representative Stephen Biegun, who, as a result of North Korean action, decided to cancel his appearances before the press today. .

A statement issued by the South Korean Foreign Ministry after meeting with Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said Biegun said "the door is still open for North Korea to resume negotiations".

As a measure of pressure given the stagnation of dialogue after the Hanoi summit, Pionyang chose to perform two weapons tests in a week that overshadowed the approach this was lived in the peninsula last year.

In Hanoi, the regime has called for a gradual denuclearization and relaxation of sanctions, which the White House, engaged in North Korean disarmament, continues to view as unacceptable.