Speaker 1: North Korea does have a habit of timing it's provocations
Speaker 1: to political events, and as you mentioned, they did fire
Speaker 1: a short range ballistic missile. The launch on Sunday the
Speaker 1: first since the shooting of its single day record of
Speaker 1: eight at the start of June. Joining US as John
Speaker 1: huskevitt S, Bloomberg East Asia Government Editor tell us, I
Speaker 1: guess the significance of this, John Well, I think that
Speaker 1: we're in North Korea signally that it's going to be
Speaker 1: returning to provocations. They've been on a bit of a
Speaker 1: hiatus for a few months. They battled flooding typhoons, and
Speaker 1: they're looking to it looks like they're looking to resume
Speaker 1: tests of missiles. They could be preparing for a test
Speaker 1: of a submarine launched ballistic missile. There's some satellite images
Speaker 1: that show activity near submarine center and for months North
Speaker 1: Korea has been preparing it's a nuclear test site. The US, Japan,
Speaker 1: South Korea all say that they see a nuclear test
Speaker 1: in the works, and we could be seeing that coming
Speaker 1: soon as soon as well as well. And is what's
Speaker 1: happening in Russia? The war in Ukraine? Is that providing
Speaker 1: somewhat of an opening here for Pyongyang to to ramp
Speaker 1: up it's testing very much though, UM the the with
Speaker 1: the U S attention occupied with Russia's war in Ukraine
Speaker 1: North Korea season opening, and they also have some cover
Speaker 1: at the U N Security Council, which would be responsible
Speaker 1: for hitting North Korea with sanctions for additional testing, whether
Speaker 1: it's ballistic missiles or nuclear weapons. UM In may Russia
Speaker 1: and China sider with North Korea when it came to
Speaker 1: a vote on sanctions, and if there was another test coming,
Speaker 1: we probably wouldn't see either North Korea or Russia joining
Speaker 1: the US. In UH joining the US and imposing greater
Speaker 1: sanctions in North Korea. They could use their veto power
Speaker 1: to keep the pressure on Kim Jong relatively light as
Speaker 1: the Russia is battling the US in terms of politics
Speaker 1: with the war in Ukraine. Yeah, so always the threat
Speaker 1: of more sanctions. What though, has been the initial reaction
Speaker 1: that we've seen from the US and the Indo Pacific Command.
Speaker 1: The end of Pacific Command has given a statement which
Speaker 1: is very similar to the statements is given for all
Speaker 1: of North Korea's missile tests over the past few years.
Speaker 1: They say that it's um it's it clear. They say
Speaker 1: that it's a great concern and it has a destabilizing
Speaker 1: impact on the region. Um. This is the type of
Speaker 1: response have been given that they've given for a number
Speaker 1: of the tests. But this test also comes as the
Speaker 1: US aircraft carrier, the Ronald Reagan Group is in the
Speaker 1: South Korean port of Poussan for drills center likely to
Speaker 1: start in a few days. UM. It will be the
Speaker 1: first time this carrier group has had drules in five years.
Speaker 1: With South Korea and North Korea really bristles at these
Speaker 1: joint military activities for years. They've called him a prelude
Speaker 1: to an innovasion in nuclear war, and they like to
Speaker 1: show their dissatisfaction with what's going on. So this also
Speaker 1: may be a factor for the missile launch over the weekend. Yeah,
Speaker 1: in deed, and I guess we have to wonder what
Speaker 1: is next because Yon Hop the South Korea news agency
Speaker 1: reporting that South Korea's military has spotted some activities in
Speaker 1: terms of some submarine launched missiles too. Yeah, those would
Speaker 1: be a little bit of an escalation of what has
Speaker 1: been going on. So will was launched over the weekend
Speaker 1: was a short range ballistic missile, the sub rein launched
Speaker 1: ballistic missiles UM are two stage missiles for the most part,
Speaker 1: so they have a greater range than North Korea has
Speaker 1: various types of missiles, but the ones that they're looking
Speaker 1: to test and they've shown a military rage is something
Speaker 1: called the pool guok Song. This is UM, a two
Speaker 1: stage rocket. It's designed to be deployed quickly. It can
Speaker 1: be shot off of the submarine, it can be shot
Speaker 1: from land, and the range is long enough to hit
Speaker 1: Japan and also perhaps US military basis in Guam. Alright,
Speaker 1: and more gio political tensions ahead, John, Thank you. John
Speaker 1: Hosgwitz is Bloomberg East Asia Government editor with us from Tokyo.