North Korea fires unidentified projectile, slams US 'hostile' policy

North Korea fires unidentified projectile towards the sea off its east coast amid Pyongyang's calls for US and South Korea to scrap their "hostile policy."

South Korean army soldiers patrol along the barbed-wire fence in Paju, near the border with North Korea, on September 26, 2021.
Reuters

South Korean army soldiers patrol along the barbed-wire fence in Paju, near the border with North Korea, on September 26, 2021.

North Korea has accused the United States of hostility and demanded the Biden administration to permanently end joint military exercises with South Korea even as it continued its recent streak of weapons tests apparently aimed at pressuring Washington and Seoul over slow nuclear diplomacy.

North Korean Ambassador Kim Song's comments on the last day of the UN General Assembly on Monday came shortly after South Korea's military said the North fired an unidentified projectile into its eastern waters.

The North's latest test on Tuesday, which followed two previous rounds of missile tests this month, indicated that the country is returning to its tried-and-true technique of mixing weapons demonstrations and peace offers to wrest concessions amid long-stalled negotiations over its nuclear weapons programme.

Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff didn't immediately say what the North launched in its latest test or how far the weapon flew.

Addressing the General Assembly, Kim justified North Korea's development of a "war deterrent" as a necessity to defend against US threats, and also accused South Korea of betraying inter-Korean peace agreements by prioritising its Western ally over "national harmony."

He demanded that the United States "permanently" stop its military exercises with South Korea, which the North has traditionally described as invasion rehearsals, and end the deployment of US strategic weapons to the Korean Peninsula.

"The possible outbreak of a new war on the Korean Peninsula is contained not because of the US's mercy on the DPRK. It is because our state is a growing reliable deterrent that can control the hostile forces in the attempts of a military invasion," Kim said, referring to North Korea by the abbreviation of its formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

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'Hostile policy'

Kim called for the United States to contribute to the peace and stability of the peninsula and the world "by withdrawing an anachronistic, hostile policy towards the DPRK in a bold and complete manner."

"Hostile policy" is a term North Korea mainly uses the term to refer to US-led sanctions over its nuclear weapons programme and the joint US-South Korea military drills.

North Korea has also been increasingly criticising the United States' broader security role in the Asia-Pacific amid intensifying competition with China, Pyongyang's major ally and economic lifeline.

Analysts say North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is using the South's desire for inter-Korean engagement to pressure Seoul to extract concessions from the Biden administration on his behalf as he renews an attempt to leverage his nuclear weapons for badly needed economic benefits.

In their speeches at the General Assembly last week, both President Joe Biden and South Korean President Moon Jae-in expressed hopes to diplomatically resolve the standoff with North Korea while sidestepping the fresh tensions created by the North's latest tests.

Biden, whose pullout from Afghanistan underscored a broader shift in US focus from counterterrorism and so-called rogue states like North Korea and Iran to confronting a rising authoritarian superpower in China, said his administration would seek "serious and sustained diplomacy" to denuclearise the Korean Peninsula.

READ MORE: N Korea has 'probably' developed miniaturised nuclear devices: UN report

Korean War

Moon, who wants North Korea to remain a priority in Washington, made a more ambitious push to break the diplomatic deadlock, calling for the leaders of the Koreas, the United States, and China to declare an end to the Korean War. 

The 1950-53 conflict, in which North Korea and ally China faced off against South Korea and US-led UN forces, ended with an armistice, but there was never a peace treaty.

North Korea rebuffed Moon's offer days later, saying that such a declaration would end up being a "smokescreen" to cover up US hostility, making it clear it has no interest in political statements unless they bring sanctions relief.

But Kim Yo-jong, the influential sister of the North Korean leader, said her country will take steps to repair ties with the South, and may even discuss another summit between their leaders — if Seoul drops its hostility and public criticism about North Korean military developments.

Nuclear negotiations have stalled since the collapse of a meeting between Kim and former president Donald Trump in February 2019, when the Americans rejected the North's demands for a major removal of US-led sanctions over its nuclear weapons programme in exchange for dismantling an aging nuclear facility.

 That would have amounted to only a partial surrender of its nuclear capabilities.

Kim in recent political speeches has vowed to bolster his nuclear deterrent in face of US pressure. His government has so far rejected the Biden administration's offer to resume talks without preconditions, saying that Washington must abandon its hostile policy first.

READ MORE: Why is North Korea’s nuclear programme such a threat?

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