Pyongyang fired two short-range ballistic missiles on Friday, the South Korean army announced, a new show of force that has Seoul and Washington fearing the imminence of a new nuclear test by Kim Jong-un.
The South Korean army said it had “detected two ballistic missiles fired from the Tongchon area in Kangwon”, a province on the east coast of North Korea, “between 11:59 am and 12:18 pm”.
The missiles flew over a distance of about 230 kilometers at an altitude of 24 kilometers and at a speed of Mach 5, according to the statement which denounced a “serious provocation” violating UN sanctions.
“Our military has strengthened its control and surveillance and maintains a position of full readiness in close coordination with the United States,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Seoul said in a statement.
These firings come as the United States and South Korea complete twelve days of joint military exercises, including amphibious operations (on land and at sea). The two allies will start air defense exercises from Monday, in which 200 Korean and American fighter jets will participate.
This type of military exercises provokes the fury of the North, which perceives them as a dress rehearsal for an invasion. Pyongyang therefore justifies its firing by presenting it as “countermeasures” against what it sees as American aggression.
For Hong Min of the Korea Institute for National Unification, Friday’s firing is an effort by Pyongyang to retaliate against drills in Washington and Seoul.
“The North knows it cannot match the combined air capabilities of the United States and South Korea. He therefore intends to show that he is capable of hitting their air command center with his missiles,” he told AFP.
Seoul and Washington have repeatedly warned that Pyongyang could be on the verge of carrying out another nuclear test, for the first time since 2017, after a series of ballistic missile launches in recent weeks.
“Denuclearization”
“Everyone is holding their breath,” International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi told reporters on the sidelines of a UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine on Thursday. .
“Another nuclear test would be further confirmation of a nuclear program that is moving full steam ahead in an incredibly worrying direction,” he continued.
The increasingly assertive posture of the North has the effect of reinforcing old alliances within the region.
On Wednesday, the deputy foreign ministers of the United States, Japan and South Korea, meeting in Tokyo, pledged to strengthen their deterrence in the region.
“We have agreed to further strengthen cooperation […] so that North Korea immediately ends its illegal activities and resumes denuclearization talks,” South Korean Cho Hyun-dong said at the meeting.
“All three countries agreed on the need for an unprecedented force response if North Korea conducts its seventh nuclear test,” he told reporters.
They also warned on this occasion that a North Korean nuclear test would bring about a “response of unprecedented force”.
A missile also flew over Japan a few weeks ago and North Korea has separately claimed to have carried out tactical nuclear exercises.
“All of this behavior is dangerous and deeply destabilizing,” US Assistant Secretary of State Wendy Sherman warned on Wednesday, urging North Korea to “refrain from further provocations.”