now following North Korea's surprise
test firing of two short-range
projectiles on Monday the regime has
come out to say its leader Kim jong-un
supervised the drill personally but why
has an auth decided to conduct such a
weapons test now especially when the
world is focused on dealing with this
coronavirus outbreak Oh Sooyoung reports
North Korea's latest projectile launch
may have been a show of strength
amid the spread of the corona virus amid
speculation that the covert 19 outbreak
could devastate the North Korean
population which is already suffering
from poor health and malnutrition expert
dr. mark berry told Arirang news the
launch may have been designed to prove
otherwise
Kim during on surely senses that the
world thinks Oh North Korea must be
totally encumbered and overwhelmed with
coronavirus concerns and although all
his generals were wearing masks in the
pictures that were released yesterday
the reality is that he probably was
trying to show to the world and to the
president as well that we are here and
we're going to be continuing our testing
especially since you Americans have
announced a postponement of your joint
military exercises which are normally
scheduled for March it's not only the
global community that's concerned about
the covert 19 outbreak North Koreans
could face a significant economic
downturn sealing the country's borders
to keep out the virus is likely to cause
a drastic drop in trade with its
economic lifeline China dr. berry says
the launch could also be a strategic
move to offset the regime's heavy
dependence on Beijing always the seeking
of attention is to engage the United
States in a way that it can balance in
my view the enormous pressure from China
because in the long run the DPRK the
more it relies on China the more it
risks
a progressive loss of economic and
political sovereignty so the United
States is extremely important and always
has been but especially in this age of
president xi jinping
and the the emergence of a very strong
Chinese hegemonic power in the region
but will Kong's provocation get the
attention the regime seeks experts say
as both China and the US responded a
covert 19 outbreak and other domestic
issues such as the u.s. presidential
elections the North Korean agenda won't
be high on their list of priorities
meanwhile the North's state-run Korean
Central News Agency on Tuesday said Kim
jong-un himself had inspected a
long-range artillery unit row when the
projectiles were launched North Korea
Laster conducted 13 weapons tests but
has been relatively silent over the last
three months Oh Sooyoung Arirang news
