North Korea fires short-range ballistic missile ‘towards East Sea’, South Korea says

The shooting took place on the anniversary of the death of former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.

New show of force from Pyongyang. The South Korean military claims that North Korea fired a ballistic missile towards the East Sea on Sunday, December 17.

“Our armed forces detected a suspected short-range ballistic missile launched from the Pyongyang region towards the East Sea at around 10:38 p.m.” (1:38 p.m. Paris), South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said. This missile launch, the last in a long series, took place on the anniversary of the death of the father of current North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Kim Jong-il, who died on December 17, 2011. .

The South Korean army has strengthened its warning system and “shares information relating to the North Korean ballistic missile closely with the United States and Japan”, specifies the staff. Japan’s Defense Ministry also said North Korea launched “what appears to be a ballistic missile”.

Washington and Seoul increase the pressure

The test also comes as Seoul and Washington have warned that any nuclear attack against the United States or South Korea would bring about the end of the North Korean regime. The two allies participated in the second session of the Nuclear Advisory Group in Washington on Friday, focused on nuclear deterrence in the event of conflict with the North.

Last year, North Korea announced a new doctrine making “irreversible” its status as a nuclear power, and authorizing it to carry out a preventive atomic strike in the event of an existential threat against its regime. Last September, its status as a nuclear state was also enshrined in its Constitution. In November, North Korea succeeded in putting a military spy satellite into orbit, capable, it said, of providing images of American and South Korean military sites.