North Korea's Response towards the Termination of the Missile Guidelines

President Moon Jae-in of South Korea and President Joe Biden held a summit at the White House on May 21, 2021. During the summit, Mr. Biden agreed to terminate the missile guidelines that have been imposed on South Korea since 1979. The guidelines were enforced to prevent S. Korea from developing a powerful missile; limiting their range and capacity. The U.S. believed that allowing S. Korea to create powerful missiles would construct obstacles for their propaganda of denuclearizing the world. Deleting these guidelines gives benefits to S. Korea, but in return, South Korea must intervene and protect the Pacific and Indian oceans from China’s aggressive expansion. Thus, this decision was made to allow South Korea to develop more powerful weapons to counter the nuclear missiles from the North.

The sudden change created much criticism in East Asia: China, Japan, North Korea. In response to the summit, North Korea’s state media criticized the U.S for lifting restrictions on South Korea and warned that lifting it would raise tensions in the Korean Peninsula and start an arms race. The lifting of the restrictions “is a stark reminder of the U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK (N. Korea) and its shameful double-dealing,” said a North Korean official from the North’s official Korean Central News Agency. This response was from a news agency, indicating that Pyongyang was still developing an official government response. It has been known that S.Korea and America have no ill intention of receiving money and only wanted to prevent alleged wars in East Asia. As tension increases in East Asia, the surrounding countries, such as Japan, China, and N.Korea, threaten S.Korea to stop the production of Hyun-Moo 5. Hyun-Moo is a series of ballistic missiles created by S. Korea. Hyun-Moo translates as "Guardian angel of the northern skies", indicating that its purpose was to protect the country. The production of these weapons began in 1982 and succeeded their first ballistic missile (Hyun-Moo 1) with a payload of 480kg and a distance of 180km. With the restrictions gone, their Hyun-Moo 5 would hold a distance of 3,000 km with a capacity over 1,500kg. As S. Korea produces their missiles, signs of unification decrease.

Tomas C.