North Korea launched eight short-range ballistic missiles from Pyongyang's territory in an easterly direction, the day after the day after the visit of a US government special envoy to South Korea and the day after the conclusion of three days of joint US-South Korean military training.
"Our armed forces detected the launch of eight short-range ballistic missiles from the Sunan sector in Pyongyang in the direction of the East Sea," South Korea's National Defense General Staff said, referring to the sea area called the Sea of Japan in Tokyo.
The launches took place within about thirty minutes, it explained.
"Our military has intensified its monitoring and level of vigilance in view of new launches. South Korea and the US are closely cooperating and are fully prepared," he added."
The new launches were recorded following three days of joint exercises between the US and South Korean armed forces involving the USS Ronald Reagan, a 100-displacement nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.This was the first joint military exercises between the two countries since the new South Korean President Yun Suk-gel took office in early May. The new conservative president has announced that he will pursue a tougher policy toward Pyongyang.
This is the first time a US aircraft carrier has participated in joint exercises since November 2017.
[BR][BR]North Korea has strongly protested for years about exercises of this kind, which it describes as rehearsals for an invasion of its territory.
The drills "reinforced the two countries' determination to respond sharply to any North Korean provocation" and "demonstrated the US commitment" to "extensive deterrence," the South Korean military said in a statement.
According to Go Myung-hyang, a researcher at the Asan Institute for Political Studies, the unusually large number of missiles fired by North Korea this time seems to have been in retaliation for the drills.
"It looks like they fired eight missiles because from their perspective, the scale of the joint drills was magnified," he explained to Agence France-Presse.
Last month, following his meeting in Seoul with President Yun, US President Joe Biden assured that Washington would deploy "strategic assets" if necessary to deter North Korea.
Hours after Mr Biden concluded his tour of the region, Kim Jong Un's regime proceeded to test three missiles, including a Hwasong-17, considered the largest intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in its arsenal.
Washington and Seoul have been warning for several weeks that Pyongyang may soon proceed with its seventh nuclear weapons test in its history, the first in five years.
North Korea, despite being hit by a wave of the new coronavirus pandemic, has resumed construction of a nuclear reactor it had long ago disabled, according to satellite images.
The South Korean presidency says Pyongyang has proceeded with a detonator test in preparation for a new nuclear weapon test.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had declared a moratorium on intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBMs) launches and nuclear weapons tests in 2017 as he held negotiations with then US President Donald Trump. But those talks ended in failure in 2019.
North Korea partially ended the moratorium in March by launching an intercontinental ballistic missile.
Some analysts believe that Pyongyang may accelerate its arms programs by moving to nuclear weapons testing in order to divert the attention of the North Korean population from the pandemic. In the country of 25 million people, the threshold of 4 million possible cases was exceeded yesterday, Saturday, according to official data - which are considered underestimated.
Source: CNA
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