Report: NKorea creates army division in charge of missiles capable of hitting Japan, Guam

Report: NKorea has medium-range missile division

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea has recently created an army division in charge of newly developed intermediate-range missiles capable of striking U.S. forces in Japan and Guam, a South Korean news agency said Tuesday.

The report came as North Korea stepped up its war rhetoric against the U.S. and South Korea after the allies started their annual drills aimed at improving their defense capabilities.

The North’s People’s Army recently launched a division supervising operational deployment of missiles with a range of more than 1,860 miles (3,000 kilometers) that it had developed in recent years, Yonhap news agency reported citing an unidentified South Korean government source.

The missiles could pose a threat to U.S. forces in Japan, Guam and other Pacific areas that are to be redeployed in time of emergency on the Korean peninsula, Yonhap said.

The report, however, didn’t provide further details such as how many missiles the new division possesses and where they are positioned.

South Korea’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday it couldn’t confirm the Yonhap report. However, a ministry document published last year showed that the North deployed a new type of medium-range missile believed to be the same as one it displayed during a military parade in 2007.

If confirmed, the division’s launch could suggest that the North has succeeded in developing more medium-range missiles since 2007 and it needed a bigger unit to manage them, said Ohm Tae-am of the state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses in Seoul.

The division’s creation would also mean the North has a unit whose primary role is to prevent the U.S. from redeploying its troops in the Pacific to the Korean peninsula in the event of a conflict, said Baek Seung-joo of the same institute.

North Korea’s missile program and nuclear weapons development program are major regional security concerns.

The North conducted a long-range rocket test in April in violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution that prohibits the country from engaging in any ballistic missile-related activities. A defiant Pyongyang subsequently quit nuclear disarmament talks and performed a second nuclear test.

The United Nations responded in July by imposing punishing new sanctions that toughened an arms embargo on the country and authorized ship searches on the high seas.

On Tuesday, the North continued its salvo against the U.S. and South Korea over their military drills, which the regime has long slammed as a rehearsal for invasion.

“This cannot be interpreted otherwise than a grave provocation,” the North’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement. It said the North will continue to bolster its nuclear capability as long as the U.S. military threats persist.

The ministry, however, said the North is ready for both dialogue and war, a position that contrasts from a military statement Sunday that the North would break off dialogue with the U.S. in response to the drills.

In a Pyongyang street, citizens read newspaper articles reporting North Korean troops were placed on high alert following the drills, according to footage shot by broadcaster APTN in the North’s capital.

“This clearly shows once again that the U.S. and South Korean authorities are peace breakers, bringing the clouds of war to this land. They are warmongers who are fond of war,” Kim Chol Ok, a Pyongyang resident, said.

About 18,000 American soldiers and an undisclosed number of South Korean troops are taking part in 11 days of drills that began Monday across South Korea.

The U.S., which has 28,500 troops in South Korea, has said the drills are purely defensive.