North Korea yesterday test-fired two short-range ballistic missiles in another show of force, a day after the US and South Korea began military drills that Pyongyang views as an invasion rehearsal.
The missiles launched from the southwestern coastal town of Jangyon flew across North Korea before landing in the sea off the east coast, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. It said both missiles traveled about 620km.
The reported flight distances suggest the missiles target South Korea, which hosts about 28,000 US troops.
Photo: AFP
South Korea’s military called the launches “a grave provocation” that undermines stability on the Korean Peninsula.
The US Indo-Pacific Command said the launches did not pose an immediate threat to its allies, but it said North Korea’s recent tests highlight the “destabilizing impact” of its unlawful weapons programs, and that the US security commitment to South Korea and Japan remains “ironclad.”
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters that officials were still gathering details of the North Korean launches and there were no immediate reports of damage in Japanese waters.
Pyongyang could further escalate its weapons tests over the coming days in a tit-for-tat response to the allies’ military drills, which are planned to run until Thursday next week.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un last week ordered his troops to be ready to repel what he called the “frantic war preparations moves” by his nation’s rivals.
Worries about North Korea’s nuclear program have grown sharply after it test-fired more than 70 missiles last year, many of them nuclear-capable weapons, and openly threatened to use them in potential conflicts with the US and South Korea.
North Korea appears to be using long-stalled talks with Washington and the expanding US-South Korean drills as a chance to enlarge its weapons arsenals to increase its leverage in future dealings with the US.
The North Korean threats, along with China’s increasing assertiveness, have pushed the US to seek to reinforce its alliances with South Korea and Japan, but some experts say a solidified Washington-Seoul-Tokyo cooperation could prompt Pyongyang, Beijing and Moscow to strengthen their own trilateral ties.
China and Russia, embroiled in separate confrontations with the US, have repeatedly blocked the US and its allies’ bids to toughen UN sanctions on North Korea.
Yesterday’s launches were North Korea’s second weapons test this week. North Korea on Monday said that it had test-fired two cruise missiles from a submarine the previous day. It implied the cruise missiles were being developed to carry nuclear warheads, though outside experts debate whether Pyongyang possesses functioning nuclear-armed missiles.
Submarine-launched missile systems are harder to detect and would provide North Korea retaliatory second attack capability, but experts say it would take years, extensive resources and major technological improvements for the heavily sanctioned nation to build a fleet of submarines that could travel quietly and reliably execute strikes.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on Monday said that North Korea has been refining its submarine-launch capabilities since its first test in 2016 and the US was studying Sunday’s launches to assess its capabilities.
“But of course, we’re not going to let any steps North Korea takes deter us or constrain us from the actions that we feel are necessary to safeguard stability on the Korean Peninsula,” Sullivan said.
The US-South Korean joint exercises that started on Monday include computer simulations involving North Korean aggression, other security scenarios and field exercises.
The US-South Korea drills would proceed normally, regardless of whether “North Korea tries to disrupt them with provocations like missile launches,” South Korean Ministry of National Defense spokesperson Jeon Ha-gyu said.
US Department of State spokesman Ned Price on Monday said that the US has made it clear it harbors no hostile intent toward North Korea and that the allies’ longstanding exercises are “purely defensive in nature.”
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