SEOUL: North Korea has fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles toward its east coast, South Korea and Japan stated, days after the country unveiled a uranium enrichment facility and pledged to beef up its nuclear arsenal.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said that the missiles lifted off from Kaechon, north of Pyongyang, at around 6:50 a.m. in a northeast direction and flew around 400 km. However, he did not specify how many were fired and where these missiles were landed.
In a statement, the JSC said that they strongly denounced North Korea’s missile launch as a clear provocation that seriously threatens stability and peace of the Korean peninsula. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff vowed overwhelming responses to any further provocations in the region.
South Korea and Japan
Around 30 minutes following its first missile notice, Japan’s coast guard stated that North Korea has fired another ballistic missile. Japan’s Minister for Defence Affairs Minoru Kihara stated that at least one of the missiles fell near the North’s eastern inland coast. The Minister said that such launches “cannot be tolerated.”
The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command stated in a statement via social media that it was aware of the launches and consulting closely with South Korea and Japan.
North Korea fired several short-range ballistic missiles on Thursday, the first such launch in more than sixty days, which it later termed as a test of a new 600-mm multiple launch rocket system.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff has stated that the launch might have been to test the arms for export to Moscow, amid intensifying defence cooperation between the two nations.
US, Ukraine and Russia
Washington, Seoul and Kyiv have accused Pyongyang of supplying missiles and rockets to Moscow for use in the ongoing war in Ukraine, in return for economic and other defence help.
North Korean Minister for Foreign Affair Choe Son Hui, who is visiting Moscow this week to attend conferences, met her counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Tuesday and exchanged views to further promote bilateral relations, the Russian foreign ministry stated.
Today’s missile launches also came days after North Korea for the first time showed images of centrifuges that produce fuel for its nuclear bombs, as Kim Jong Un visited a uranium enrichment facility and called for more material to boost the arsenal, Reuters reported.
