South’s military: North Korea fires unidentified projectiles
North Korea fired two unidentified projectiles from a coastal area March 2 as it resumed weapons demonstrations following a months-long hiatus.
The launches came two days after North Korea’s state media said leader Kim Jong Un supervised an artillery drill aimed at testing the combat readiness of units in front-line and eastern areas.
Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff confirmed the launches in a statement but couldn’t immediately confirm how far the projectiles flew or whether the weapons were ballistic or rocket artillery.
During a key ruling party meeting in late December, Kim expressed deep frustration over deadlocked diplomacy with the United States and said he won’t denuclearize if the U.S. persists with its hostile policy on his country. He also said he would unveil a new “strategic weapon” soon and no longer be bound by a self-imposed weapons test moratorium that coincided with his diplomacy with Trump.
Nuclear diplomacy between North Korea and the U.S. has largely stalled since the breakdown of Kim’s second summit with Trump in February 2019 in Vietnam. That summit collapsed because Trump rejected Kim’s demands for broad sanctions relief in return for dismantling his main nuclear complex, a limited disarmament step. Subsequent talks between Pyongyang and Washington reported little progress.
After the failed Hanoi summit, North Korea carried out a slew of short-range missile and other weapons tests. Trump downplayed them saying there were short-range weapons that didn’t pose a direct threat to the U.S. mainland. AP
Putin boasts about new Russian weapons, calls them defensive
President Vladimir Putin says that Russia has developed unique offense weapons without the intention of starting a war with anyone but to maintain “strategic balance” and “strategic stability” in the world.
“We are not going to fight against anyone. We are going to create conditions so that nobody wants to fight against us,” Putin said in an interview with the state-run Tass news agency, a part of which was released March 2.
The three-hour long interview marks Putin’s 20 years in power and is being divided into 20 parts being released over a period of weeks and each dedicated to a separate issue. In episodes that have already been released, Russia’s leader talked about the recent government reshuffle, Ukraine, mass protests in Moscow this summer and the use of modern technology.
Russia has created “offensive strike systems the world has never seen,” and which are forcing the U.S. to try to catch up, Putin told Tass.
As an example, the president mentioned new “hypersonic offensive systems” — a weapon that can fly 27 times the speed of sound that became operational late last year. He said that in the past 20 years the share of modern equipment in the Russian military has grown from 6 percent to 70 percent.
“This is a unique situation,” Putin said.
Having these systems in place allows the Kremlin to “maintain strategic stability and strategic balance” that the U.S. tried to “upset” with their missile defense systems, the president added.
“It is essential not only for us, but also for global security,” Putin concluded.
The Kremlin has made military modernization its top priority as its relations with the West soured after Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014. Putin first mentioned developing some of the new hypersonic weapons in his state of the nation address in March 2018.
Last year, he described a buildup of NATO’s forces near Russia’s western borders and the U.S. withdrawal from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty as being among the top security threats to Russia. AP
DON'T FORGET TO SIGN UP
Get Breaking Aerospace News Sent To Your Inbox! We Never Spam
By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: . You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact