Tensions run high as North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea on Thursday in the direction of Japan. The missile launch was the sixth in 12 days and is the first one since North Korea fired an intermediate-range missile (IRBM) over Japan on Tuesday. The move that had prompted joint South Korean and U.S. missile drills during which one weapon crashed and burned creating panic in the South Korean town.
The fresh missile launch came just about an hour after North Korea condemned the United States for consulting the United Nations Security Council about Pyongyang’s missile tests and blamed Washington for “escalating the military tensions on the Korean peninsula”.
The past couple of weeks have seen a blitz of launches including one of longest-ever test by distance. North Korea however maintains that the tests were just “counteraction measures of the Korean People’s Army on South Korea-US joint drills,” according to Pyongyang’s foreign ministry.
The United States on the other hand accused China and Russia on Wednesday of enabling the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un by blocking attempts to strengthen U.N. Security Council sanctions on Pyongyang over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.
The new missile launches on Thursday were detected by the South Korea’s military who said, “two short-range ballistic missiles launched from the Samsok area in Pyongyang towards the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan.”
“Our military has reinforced monitoring and surveillance and is maintaining utmost readiness in coordination with the United States,” Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.
The Japanese government too confirmed the launch and the Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters. “This absolutely cannot be tolerated.”
The first missile on Thursday flew about 350 kilometres at a maximum altitude of around 100 kilometres, while the second missile had a flight range of about 800 kilometres at an altitude of around 50 kilometres, according to Japanese defence minister Yasukazu Hamada.
Many of North Korea’s most recent short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs) are designed to fly on a lower, depressed trajectory and potentially manoeuvre, complicating efforts to detect and intercept them.
North Korea has launched about 40 missiles this year with a record schedule that began in January with the launch of a new “hypersonic missile,” and went on to include long-range cruise missiles; SRBMs fired from rail cars, airports, and a submarine; its first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launches since 2017; and the IRBM shot over Japan.
North Korea also appears ready to conduct a nuclear test for the first time since 2017, according to officials in Seoul and Washington.
The United States and its allies have stepped up displays of military force in the region, but there appears to be little prospect of further international sanctions from the U.N. Security Council, which has already passed resolutions banning the North’s missile and nuclear development.
Beijing meanwhile has continued to blame Washington for provoking the spate of launches by Kim Jong Un’s regime. Deputy Chinese ambassador to the UN Geng Shuang said North Korea’s recent launches were “closely related” to military exercises in the region conducted by the United States and its allies.
In May, China and Russia vetoed a U.S.-led push to impose more U.N. sanctions on North Korea over its renewed ballistic missile launches, publicly splitting the Security Council for the first time since it started punishing Pyongyang with sanctions in 2006.
(With inputs from AFP, Reuters)
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