North Korea launches ballistic missile toward sea after US-South Korea exercise
Monday’s launch marked the first time the North fired weapons in five days. (Photo: PTI)
North Korea launched at least one short-range ballistic missile off its east coast on Monday, the South Korean military said, a day after the North promised offensive and overwhelming responses to a new US military exercise with South Korea and Japan.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile was launched at 5:05 a.m. from North Korea’s southeastern city of Jangyon. It said an additional, unidentified ballistic missile launch track was detected 10 minutes later, indicating North Korea may have conducted two missile launches.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff said the South Korean military has strengthened its surveillance posture and is sharing closely related information with the United States and Japan.
The launch came two days after South Korea, the US and Japan concluded their new multi-domain trilateral exercises in the region. In recent years, the three countries have expanded their trilateral security partnership to better deal with North Korea’s evolving nuclear threats and China’s growing assertiveness in the region.
The Freedom Edge exercise was designed to increase the sophistication of previous exercises with simultaneous air and naval exercises aimed at improving joint ballistic missile defense, anti-submarine warfare, surveillance and other skills and capabilities. The three-day exercise featured a U.S. aircraft carrier and destroyers, fighter jets and helicopters from the three countries.
On Sunday, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry issued a lengthy statement strongly condemning the Freedom Edge exercise and calling it an Asian version of NATO. It said the exercise openly destroyed the security situation on the Korean Peninsula and contained a US intention to besiege China and put pressure on Russia.
The statement said that North Korea will firmly defend the sovereignty, security and interests of the state and regional peace through offensive and overwhelming countermeasures.
Monday’s launch was the North’s first weapons fire in five days.
North Korea launched what it called a multiwarhead missile on Wednesday, the first known launch of a developmental, advanced weapon intended to defeat U.S. and South Korean missile defenses. North Korea said the launch was successful, but South Korea rejected North Korea’s claim as a deception to cover up a failed launch.
In recent weeks, North Korea has also launched numerous waste-carrying balloons toward South Korea in what it has described as a tit-for-tat response to South Korean activists who sent political leaflets via their own balloons. South Korea responded by briefly resuming its anti-Pyongyang frontline propaganda broadcasts for the first time in years.
In mid-June, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin struck a deal in which they promised to help each other defend themselves if either was attacked. Observers say the pact could embolden Kim to launch more provocations against South Korea. The U.S., South Korea and others believe Pyongyang has supplied Russia with conventional weapons for its war against Ukraine in exchange for military and economic aid.
Meanwhile, North Korea opened a key ruling party meeting on Friday to determine what it called important, immediate issues related to efforts to further strengthen Korean-style socialism. On the second day of the meeting, the North Korean leader discussed some deviations that are hampering efforts to improve the country’s economic status and unspecified important tasks for resolving immediate policy issues, North Korean state media reported Sunday.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been edited by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content was auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First print: July 1, 2024 | 06:49 AM IST