North Korea fired two more short-range ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan (called the East Sea in the two Koreas) on Thursday just two days after launching an intermediate-range missile that flew over Japanese territory, significantly increasing tension in the region.
“The South Korean military detected two short-range ballistic missiles fired from the Samseok area of Pyongyang, North Korea, fired into the East Sea at around 6.01 and 6.23 (21.01 and 21.23 GMT on Wednesday),” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a statement.
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Today’s is the sixth North Korean launch in the last ten days and comes after Seoul and Washington announced the return to the waters of the Korean peninsula of the USS Ronald Reagan nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS in response to the medium-range ballistic missile (IRBM) that Pyongyang fired on Tuesday.
In fact, Pyongyang today condemned the return of Ronald Reagan, who last week held exercises in the area with the South Korean and Japanese navy, in a brief statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea’s official name) is watching as the US poses a serious threat to the stability of the Korean peninsula and its environs by redeploying its aircraft carrier and strike group in waters off the Korean peninsula,” the statement said.
The statement even acknowledges that the launch of the IRBM last Tuesday was a response to the maneuvers of Ronald Reagan last week and criticizes that “the US and some of its satellites” are now seeking sanctions from the UN Security Council for their “just response measures” to the “escalation of tension” that the carrier exercises entail.
For its part, the Japanese government believes that the missiles fired today traveled around 800 kilometers with a peak of about 50 and fell outside its exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
The IRBM launched on Tuesday was the longest-covered North Korean projectile ever, as it traveled about 4,500 kilometers after flying over northern Japan and falling into the Pacific Ocean.
In turn, North Korea, which has been completely isolated from the outside since the beginning of the pandemic and approved a weapons modernization plan in 2021, has been preparing for months to conduct a new nuclear test, satellites show.
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