North Korea fires several cruise missiles towards the Yellow Sea

Pyongyang continues to intensify its “preparations for war”. North Korea fired several cruise missiles towards the Yellow Sea on Friday February 2, according to the South Korean army. This one “detected multiple unidentified cruise missiles around 11 a.m.”towards the west coast of the peninsula, declared the South Korean general staff, which said it was closely monitoring “any new sign of additional activity”. This is the third series of cruise missile launches by North Korea this week, amid escalating tensions between Seoul and Pyongyang.

Growing tensions

North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un also visited the Nampho shipyard, where he called for a strengthening of the North Korean navy “to reliably defend the country’s maritime sovereignty and intensify war preparations”, indicated KCNA, the official North Korean agency. In January, North Korea had already announced that it had tested a “underwater nuclear weapons system” and a solid-fuel hypersonic ballistic missile, after a year 2023 marked by numerous weapons tests.

Kim Jong-un recently designated South Korea as the “main enemy”dissolved government agencies dedicated to reunification and contacts with Seoul, while threatening to declare war if its neighbor encroached on its territory “even if only by 0.001 mm”. In recent weeks, the two enemy countries have renounced agreements reached in 2018 to prevent armed incidents, strengthened their military presence on the border and carried out live artillery exercises near each other’s territory.