North Korea yesterday fired multiple ballistic missiles in a defiant show of force that coincided with a visit to Seoul by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken for a Summit for Democracy.
North Korea fired three ballistic missiles toward waters off its east coast that reached a maximum altitude of about 50km and flew about 300km to land outside of Japan’s exclusive economic zone, the Ministry of Defense in Tokyo said.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a text message to reporters about the launch that several short-range ballistic missiles were fired from about 7:44am from near Pyongyang that flew about 300km.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The US, South Korea and Japan all condemned North Korea’s first ballistic missile test in about two months, calling it a threat to regional security and a contravention of UN Security Council resolutions.
It is unclear what was in the barrage. North Korea, which often comments on missile launches the following day, has been known to engage in provocations designed to coincide with high-profile political events involving the US, South Korea and Japan.
The launches followed the conclusion of US and South Korean joint military drills on Thursday last week, which included training on land, sea and in the air against contingencies posed by North Korea.
Photo: AFP
Pyongyang’s propaganda apparatus slammed the ideals advanced by the US ahead of the Summit for Democracy, which was launched under US President Joe Biden’s administration as a way for leaders to show solidarity.
US-style democracy is the “sinister intention of imperialists” to consolidate power around US-led Western forces, North Korea’s main newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, said in an article over the weekend ahead of the summit.
Hours after the missile launches, South Korean Minister of National Defense Shin Won-sik told a news conference that Pyongyang has shipped about 7,000 containers filled with munitions and other military equipment to Russia since last year to help support its war in Ukraine.
Shin said that after initially relying on ships, the North has been increasingly using its rail networks to send arms supplies to Russia through their land border.
In exchange for sending possibly several million artillery shells and other supplies, North Korea has received more than 9,000 Russian containers likely filled with aid, Shin said.
He raised suspicions that Russia could be providing North Korea with fuel, possibly in defiance of UN Security Council sanctions that tightly cap the country’s imports of oil and petroleum products.
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