SEOUL, South Korea -- The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday criticized South Korea's president and threatened a "complete destruction" of bilateral relations after both countries tested ballistic missiles hours apart.
The launches underscored a return of tensions between the rivals at a time when talks aimed at stripping North Korea of its nuclear program are stalled.
Kim's sister, Kim Yo Jong, criticized South Korean President Moon Jae-in for comments he made while observing his country's missile tests, including its first of a submarine-launched ballistic missile. Moon said South Korea's growing missile capabilities will serve as a "sure deterrence" against North Korean provocations.
The tests took place hours after the South Korean and Japanese militaries said North Korea had fired two ballistic missiles into the sea.
In a statement carried by state media outlets, Kim Yo Jong berated Moon for describing North Korean weapons demonstrations as a provocation, and warned of a "complete destruction" of bilateral relations if he continues with what she described as slander of North Korea.
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She said North Korea is developing its military capabilities for self-defense without targeting a specific country, and that South Korea also is increasing its military capabilities. North Korea has often accused the South of hypocrisy for introducing modern weapons while calling for talks on easing tensions between the divided countries.
"If the president joins in the slander and detraction [against us], this will be followed by counter actions, and the North-South relations will be pushed toward a complete destruction," she said. "We do not want that."
The North's missile launch occurred a day after the special envoy from the U.S. urged the country to resume nuclear disarmament talks, saying that the United States had no "hostile" intent toward Pyongyang. Neighboring countries have also stepped up efforts to get North Korea to return to the negotiating table.
The North Korean short-range ballistic missiles were launched from Yangdok, in the central part of the country, and flew 497 miles and reached an altitude of 37 miles before landing in the sea between North Korea and Japan, the South Korean military said.
Japan's Ministry of Defense issued a statement saying that it "assumed" the missile did not reach the country's territorial waters or its exclusive economic zone. The last time a North Korean missile landed inside that zone was in October 2019.
South Korean and U.S. defense officials were analyzing the data collected from the test to determine exactly what type of ballistic missiles were used, it said.
LAUNCHED FROM SUBMARINE
The launches took place two days after North Korea said it fired a newly developed cruise missile, its first known missile test in six months.
Hours after the latest North Korean launches, South Korea reported its first test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile. As Moon and other top officials looked on, the missile flew from a submarine and hit a designated target, Moon's office said. It did not say how far the weapon flew.
The U.N. Security Council scheduled emergency consultations on the North Korean missile launches late Wednesday afternoon at the request of France and Estonia, diplomats said.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric expressed concern at the missile launches, reiterating that "diplomatic engagement remains the only pathway to sustainable peace and complete, verifiable denuclearization of the Korean peninsula."
Experts say North Korea is building up its weapons systems to apply pressure on the U.S. in the hopes of winning relief from economic sanctions aimed at forcing the North to abandon its nuclear arsenal. U.S.-led talks on the issue have been stalled for more than two years.
But the U.S. has not imposed fresh sanctions against the North for weapons tests in recent years. When North Korea resumed testing short-range ballistic missiles in 2019, Donald Trump, then the president, dismissed them for being short range.
"North Korea is trying to communicate a message that things will not go as Washington wishes, if it doesn't accept the North's demands," said Moon Seong Mook, an analyst with the Korea Research Institute for National Strategy in Seoul. He said North Korea may think it has an opportunity now to win concessions from U.S. President Joe Biden's administration while it is embroiled in a domestic debate after the chaotic pullout from Afghanistan.
Observers say Moon's government, which has been actively pursuing reconciliation with North Korea, may have taken action to appear tougher in response to criticism that it's too soft on the North.
In its announcement, South Korea revealed that it had successfully developed a supersonic cruise missile and a long-range air-to-land missile to be mounted on the KF-21, a South Korean supersonic fighter jet, and that it had developed a ballistic missile powerful enough to penetrate North Korea's underground wartime bunkers.
Moon has been increasing the country's defense spending in an effort to decrease his country's military dependence on the United States. Earlier this year, the United States lifted restrictions on South Korea's ability to develop missiles, under an agreement reached during Moon's summit with Biden in Washington.
The rival nations are still technically in a state of war since the 1950-53 Korean War, which pitted the North and ally China against the South and U.S.-led U.N. forces, ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.
JAPANESE WORRIES
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said the launches "threaten the peace and safety of Japan and the region and are absolutely outrageous."
The back-to-back weapons tests by North Korea both complicate matters for Japanese officials and "it increases the vulnerability of American forces in Japan," said Kazuto Suzuki, senior research fellow at the Asia Pacific Initiative in Tokyo and former member of the Panel of Experts on Iran Sanctions.
"It complicates the defense planning for Japan and probably for Americans," he said. "The combination of capabilities ... makes it much harder for defending Japan from North Korean missiles."
The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said the North Korean test "highlights the destabilizing impact of [North Korea's] illicit weapons program" though it said it didn't pose an immediate threat to the U.S. or its allies.
The North Korean launches represent a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions that bar North Korea from engaging in any ballistic missile activity. But the council typically doesn't impose new sanctions when the North launches short-range missiles, such as Wednesday's.
Wednesday's tests came as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was in Seoul for meetings with Moon and other senior officials to discuss North Korea and other issues.
It's unusual for North Korea to make provocative launches when China, its last major ally and biggest aid provider, is engaged in a major diplomatic event. But some experts say North Korea may have used the timing to draw extra attention.
"It's not just North Korea, but other countries as well that engage in military activities," Wang said when asked by reporters to comment on the North's weekend cruise-missile test. "We must all work together to resume dialogue. We all hope to contribute to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula."
Wang didn't elaborate, but appeared to be referring to the joint military exercises conducted by the United States and South Korea last month. North Korea has accused Washington and Seoul of preparing to invade the North, and usually counters joint military drills between the two allies with its own military exercise or weapons tests.
Kim Dong-yub, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said Wednesday's tests appeared to be of an improved version of a short-range missile it tested in March. He said the weapon is likely modeled on Russia's Iskander missiles, which are designed to fly at relatively low altitudes, making them harder for missle defense systems to intercept.
TALKS STUCK
The international community wants North Korea to abandon its nuclear program and has long used a combination of the threat of sanctions and the promise of economic help to try to influence the North. But negotiations have stalled since 2019, when the Trump administration rejected the North's demand for major sanctions relief in exchange for dismantling an aging nuclear facility.
The Biden administration has said it would explore "practical" and "calibrated" diplomacy to achieve the goal of the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. But Kim Jong Un's government has so far rejected the Biden administration's overtures for dialogue, demanding that Washington abandon what it calls "hostile" policies first.
North Korea has maintained its self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests, a sign that it may not want to completely scuttle the possibility of reopening the talks.
In 2017, North Korea claimed to have acquired the ability to strike the American mainland with nuclear weapons after conducting three intercontinental ballistic missile tests and its most powerful nuclear test. In recent years, it has also performed a series of underwater-launched missile tests in what experts say is a worrying development because such weapons are difficult to detect and would provide North Korea with retaliatory strike capability.
South Korea, which doesn't have nuclear weapons, is under the protection of the U.S. "nuclear umbrella," which guarantees a devastating American response in the event of an attack on its ally. But South Korea has been accelerating efforts to build up its conventional arms, including developing more powerful missiles.
Experts say South Korea's military advancements are aimed at improving its capacity for preemptive strikes and destroying key North Korean facilities and bunkers.
Information for this article was contributed by Hyung-Jin Kim, Kim Tong-Hyung and Mari Yamaguchi of The Associated Press; by Choe Sang-Hun of The New York Times and by Michelle Ye Hee Lee of The Washington Post.
