NORTH KOREA CLAIMS TO HAVE CONDUCTED A MISSILE TEST FROM A TRAIN

 North Korea test-fired ballistic missiles from a train on Saturday, in what appeared to be retribution for new penalties imposed by the Biden administration.

The North's state media reported the missile launch a day after South Korea's military said it had observed the North launching two missiles into the sea, its third this month.

The launch comes only hours after Pyongyang's Foreign Ministry chastised the US for implementing more sanctions in response to the North's past nuclear tests, threatening tougher and more explicit retaliation if the US maintained its "confrontational approach."

North Korea has been testing new rockets meant to overwhelm missile defences in the region in recent months, despite pandemic-related border closures and a halt in nuclear dialogue with the US.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to some experts, is reverting to a tried-and-true tactic of threatening the US and its neighbours with missile launches and absurd threats before initiating negotiations to obtain concessions.

According to North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency, the exercise on Friday was designed to test the army's rail-borne missile regiment's alert posture. After receiving the missile-test order on short notice, the troops went quickly to the launch location and fired two "tactical guided" missiles that accurately hit a sea target, according to the report.

The North Korean tabloid Rodong Sinmun published images of what seemed to be two separate missiles soaring above rail cars engulfed in smoke.

Cheong Seong-Chang, an analyst at South Korea's private Sejong Institute, believes the North likely staged an unplanned launch to underscore its opposition to US sanctions.

The missiles launched from rail carriages seemed to be solid-fuel short-range weapons modelled after Russia's Iskander mobile ballistic system. The missile, which was first tested in 2019, is meant to be nimble and fly at low altitudes, giving it a better chance of evading and defeating missile systems.

The North first fired these missiles from a train in September of last year, as part of its efforts to diversify its launch options, which currently comprise a variety of vehicles and could possibly include submarines, depending on the country's progress in developing such weapons.

Although firing a missile from a train could increase mobility, some experts believe that opponents would quickly destroy North Korea's modest rail networks that travel through its relatively small territory during a crisis.

In reaction to the North's prior tests this month, the Biden administration imposed penalties on five North Koreans on Wednesday for their participation in collecting equipment and technology for the North's missile programmes.

The Treasury Department's declaration came just hours after North Korea announced that Kim oversaw a successful test of a hypersonic missile on Tuesday, which he claimed would considerably boost the country's nuclear "war deterrence." North Korea demonstrated its alleged hypersonic missile for the second time in a week on Tuesday.

The KCNA carried a statement credited to an unidentified North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson hours before Friday's launch, in which he claimed that the additional restrictions reflect hostile US desire to "isolate and suffocate" the North.

If Washington maintains its "confrontational approach," the official warned of a greater response.

Because of their speed and mobility, hypersonic weapons, which travel at speeds greater than Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound, could represent a significant threat to missile defences.

Multi-warhead missiles, spy satellites, solid-fuel long-range missiles, and submarine-launched nuclear missiles were all on Kim's wish list of sophisticated military assets released early last year.

Experts say North Korea will need years of testing and more successful and longer-range tests before developing a credible hypersonic system.

In 2019, a US-led diplomatic effort to persuade North Korea to stop its nuclear weapons development failed when the Trump administration rejected the North's proposals for massive sanctions relief in exchange for a partial surrender of its nuclear arsenal.

Despite the country's economy facing huge blows because to pandemic-related border closures and continuing US-led sanctions, Kim has committed to enhance a nuclear armament he obviously sees as his strongest guarantee of survival.

His government has so far rejected the Biden administration's invitation to resume discussion without conditions, claiming that the US must first quit its "hostile policy," which Pyongyang refers to as sanctions and joint military drills between the US and South Korea.