North Korea today launched three short-range ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan, the South Korean military said, in yet another show of strength in a year marked by a record number of such launches.
The heads of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of South Korea indicated that they had detected “three short-range ballistic missiles launched by North Korea into the East Sea [name of the Sea of Japan in the two Koreas] from the Junghwa area in Hwanghae Province. do Norte [southwest] around 08:00 [23:00 on Friday in Lisbon]”, according to a statement.
Initially, the South Korean and Japanese military had detected only one ballistic missile.
This latest North Korean launch comes at a time when tensions are at their height on the Korean peninsula and just a day after Seoul conducted a test run of a future solid-fuel space rocket to speed up the launch of military reconnaissance satellites.
This year, North Korea, which is committed to a five-year plan to modernize its weapons and is still completely closed to the outside world due to the covid-19 pandemic, launched almost fifty projectiles of different types.
In the second half of the year, North Korean tests have been a response to joint South Korean-US military exercises, which Pyongyang sees as preparation for an invasion.
Given the regime’s refusal to resume diplomacy and the insistence on bolstering the arsenal, Seoul and Washington have resumed major military maneuvers since May and have opted to respond to Pyongyang’s tests with the rotating deployment of US strategic assets on the peninsula, the which accelerated a cycle of action and reaction, viewed with great concern by many observers.
This latest release also took place when North Korea’s one party holds a grand plenum in Pyongyang to set the agenda for 2023. The closing speech, delivered by leader Kim Jong-un, is expected to be released on Sunday and may include messages for US or South Korea.
*With Lusa
