Pyongyang fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan on Thursday, South Korea said, a day after the start of the biggest joint exercises by Seoul and Washington in five years.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it had detected two short-range ballistic missiles fired from the coastal city of Jangyon in the southeastern province of South Hwanghae between 07:41 (22:41 Monfair in Lisbon) and 07:00 a.m. 51.
“Our military has increased vigilance in anticipation of further launches, while standing ready to intervene as part of close cooperation between South Korea and the United States,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.
A second statement revealed that the missiles fell into the Sea of Japan after flying about 620 kilometers.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff said South Korean and US military intelligence “are carefully analyzing” the launches for more information and condemned the launches as a serious provocation and a clear violation of UN Security Council resolutions.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters authorities were still gathering details of the North Korean launches and there were no immediate reports of damage in Japanese waters.
On Monday, Pyongyang said it had tested two cruise missiles from a submarine.
The launch demonstrates North Korea’s “unchanging position” in the face of a situation in which “US imperialists and South Korean puppet forces are advancing their less and less covert military maneuvers” against Pyongyang, the official North Korean news agency said. KCNA.
These North Korean missile launches come after the Armed Forces of the United States and South Korea began, also on Monday, the largest joint maneuvers on the ground in recent years.
Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, said that while Pyongyang regularly justifies missile tests by pointing fingers at military exercises in the south, they also serve a national purpose.
“It’s very much about the Kim regime not looking weak as it faces internal economic difficulties and as South Korea has managed to bolster its conventional firepower and defense partnerships,” he told Agence France-Presse.
“We can expect more shows of force from Pyongyang,” Easley added.
“More missile launches, with variations in style and range, and even a nuclear test are expected. More acts of intimidation by North Korea should not surprise us,” said Chun In-bum, a retired DPRK general.
Source: TSF
