MOSCOW, March 13. /TASS/. The DPRK’s launch of two cruise missiles on Sunday didn’t violate any international regulations, while saber-rattling by Washington and Seoul near the borders of North Korea doesn’t help the situation in the region return to normal or a dialogue to start, Alexander Zhebin, a Korean studies expert, told TASS on Monday.
"The launch of two cruise missiles by North Korea doesn’t violate any international norms and rules. The DPRK is prohibited from launching missiles using ballistic technology by a UN Security Council resolution. As for cruise missiles, they are not included in that list, so the DPRK, like any other country, can test such missiles, which, by the way, all neighboring countries do," the analyst said.
"But as for the general situation on the peninsula, of course, the large-scale maneuvers that the Americans and South Koreans are constantly conducting, saber-rattling with the latest weapons near the borders of the DPRK don’t help to normalize the situation in that area and start a dialogue," he added, referring to regular military exercises held by the United States and South Korea.
The analyst highlighted the fact that the US, while offering the two Koreas to resume dialogue, "at the same time introduces ever more new sanctions against the DPRK, threatens to use force, and holds maneuvers that are openly aimed at getting rid of the North Korean leadership." According to the researcher, "the North Koreans, of course, are forced to respond to these threats."
The expert also said a missile arms race had started on the Korean Peninsula and expressed the opinion that the current situation could be "resolved at least partially if North and South Korea joined the control procedures in that area."
North Korea launched two strategic cruise missiles from a submarine on Sunday as part of an exercise. Earlier, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un held an expanded meeting of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea, at which they discussed, among other things, means of military deterrence amid the fact that "military provocations of the US and South Korea are reaching the limits." Pyongyang had dubbed these exercises a rehearsal of war with the DPRK.