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As you may remember, in 2018, the leaders of North Korea and the United States met for the first time in history.

In such an atmosphere, North Korea announced at the time that it would stop nuclear tests and long-range ballistic missile launches.

For over four years since then, North Korea has not crossed the line it has to keep while continuing its provocations, but today (24th) launch broke that promise.



This is Kim Tae-hoon, a defense reporter specializing in defense.



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On April 21, 2018, when the atmosphere of inter-Korean dialogue was being created, North Korea declared the suspension of nuclear tests and ICBM test launches at a plenary meeting of the Workers' Party of Korea, saying that the nuclear and missile development project had been completed.



[Chosun Central TV: Juche 107, nuclear test and intercontinental ballistic rocket test launch will be suspended from April 21, 2018.]



To ensure the credibility of the declaration, they promised to dismantle the nuclear test site in Punggye-ri, and actually bombed it a month later. The scene was revealed.



South Korea and the US evaluated that the so-called 'red line' was not crossed even if North Korea fired a new short-range, hypersonic, and medium-range missile and unveiled a super-large ICBM at a military parade in the process of drifting inter-Korean dialogue, such as the breakdown of the North Korea-U.S. summit in Hanoi.



However, North Korea held a meeting of the Politburo on January 20 and suggested the withdrawal of the suspension of the ICBM test launch and nuclear test, and today, after four years and three months, finally fired an ICBM-class, which was taboo.



[Seong Ki-Young / Senior Research Fellow, National Security Strategy Institute: The international community will of course judge that North Korea has crossed the red line because it was launched in a situation where everyone in the international community is paying attention to North Korea's ICBM launch. )]



On the 15th, the United States, which had checked the North Korean ICBM launch by an unusual sortie to the West Sea, is expected to take a tougher military response.



Also, if North Korea makes additional provocations next month on the occasion of the ROK-U.S. joint exercise and Kim Il-sung's birthday, there is a high possibility that the same strong confrontation as in 2017 will be repeated.



(Video coverage: Han Il-sang, video editing: Lee Seung-hee)