People watch a news program showing a file image of a missile launch by North Korea at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, yesterday
North Korea fired a short-range ballistic missile yesterday toward its eastern seas, extending a provocative streak in weapons testing as a U.S. aircraft carrier visits South Korea for joint military exercises in response to the North’s growing nuclear threat.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile launched from the western inland town of Taechon flew 600 kilometers cross-
country on a maximum altitude of 60 kilometers before landing in waters off North Korea’s eastern coast.
South Korea’s presidential office said National Security Director Kim Sung-han called an emergency National Security Council meeting where members denounced the launch as a clear violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions and accused the North of raising tensions in the region.
The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said the launch did not pose an “immediate threat to U.S. personnel or territory, or to our allies,” but still highlighted the destabilizing impact of North Korea’s illicit nuclear weapons and missile programs.
The launch came as the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and its strike group arrived in South Korea for the two countries’ joint military exercises that aim to show their strength against growing North Korean threats.
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said its nuclear envoy Kim Gunn held telephone calls with Sung Kim, U.S. President Joe Biden’s special representative for North Korea, and Funakoshi Takehiro, director-general for Asian and Oceanian affairs at Japan’s Foreign Ministry, to discuss trilateral cooperation in face of North Korean threats.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said in a statement Tokyo is “doing its utmost” to gather information on North Korea’s launch and confirm the safety of ships and aircraft, although there were no immediate reports of damages.
The North Korean threat is also expected to be a key agenda when U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris visits South Korea next week after attending the state funeral in Tokyo of slain former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
North Korea has dialed up its testing activities to a record pace in 2022, testing more than 30 ballistic weapons, including its first intercontinental ballistic missiles since 2017. North Korea is exploiting a divide in the United Nations Security Council that deepened over Russia’s war on Ukraine to speed up arms development.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has punctuated his weapons tests with repeated threats that the North would proactively use its nuclear weapons when threatened, increasing security concerns for its conventionally armed rival South Korea.
The flight details announced by Seoul’s military suggest that North Korea could have tested a nuclear-capable short-range weapon modeled after Russia’s Iskander missiles, which travel at relatively low altitudes and are designed to be maneuverable in flight, making them harder to be intercepted by missile defenses.
Kim Dong-yub, a professor at Seoul’s University of North Korean Studies, said it was notable that the missile flew 600 kilometers from its Taechon launch point — roughly the distance to South Korea’s southern port Busan, where the Reagan arrived Friday. KIM TONG-HYUNG, SEOUL, MDT/AP
