Natalia Chi
North Korea launched two short-range ballistic missiles into eastern waters on Monday, continuing a weapons display as the US moved its carrier strike group into nearby waters for military exercises with South Korea. .
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the two missiles were launched from the western interior south of North Korea’s capital Pyongyang between around 7:47 a.m. The Japanese military said the missile flew on an “irregular” trajectory and reached a maximum altitude of 50 kilometers (31 miles) before landing outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone.
Japan had previously used the term to describe North Korea’s solid-fuel missile, believed to be modeled after Russia’s Iskandar Mobile Ballistic System.
The launch took place the day before American aircraft carrier USS Nimitz and its strike group are scheduled to arrive at the South Korean port of Busan. South Korea’s defense ministry said Nimitz and her strike group will participate in exercises with South Korean warships on April 3 in international waters near South Korea’s resort island of Jeju.
The launch was North Korea’s seventh missile event of the month as it stepped up military demonstrations in retaliation for US-South Korea military exercises.
South Korean and Japanese militaries condemn North Korea’s latest launch as a grave provocation that threatens regional peace and violates UN Security Council resolutions, and are working with the United States to further analyze the missile. said.
The United States and South Korea last week completed their largest spring exercises in years. This included both computer simulations and life fire field exercises. But the allies have continued field exercises to show their strength against North Korea’s expanding nuclear arsenal and the belligerent threat of nuclear war.
North Korea has launched more than 20 ballistic and cruise missiles in 11 launch events this year in an attempt to force the United States to accept its nuclear status and negotiate the lifting of sanctions from a strong position.
North Korea’s launches this month included flight tests of an intercontinental ballistic missile and an array of short-range weapons intended to overwhelm South Korea’s missile defenses. carry out a nuclear attack Both in South Korea and the mainland United States.
North Korea last week conducted what it described as a three-day exercise simulating a nuclear attack on a South Korean target. Allies say the exercises are defensive in nature.
North Korean tests include Underwater drone for nuclear power North Korea claimed it could produce a gigantic “radioactive tsunami” that would destroy ships and ports. Analysts were skeptical about North Korea’s claims about the drone and whether the device poses a new major threat, but emphasized North Korea’s commitment that the test would escalate its nuclear threat.
After North Korea announced a drone test on Friday, the South Korean Air Force last week announced details of five days of joint aerial training with the United States, including live-fire demonstrations of air-to-air and air-to-surface weapons. The Air Force said the exercises are intended to validate precision strike capabilities and reaffirm the credibility of Seoul’s “three-axis” strategy against North Korea’s nuclear threat.
North Korea is already having a record year for weapons testing, launching more than 70 missiles in 2022. It also enacted a tiered nuclear doctrine that permits preemptive nuclear strikes in a wide range of scenarios in which North Korea may exercise leadership. Like under threat.
