South Korea’s Chief of Staff and the Japanese coast guard have accused North Korea of firing a missile off its east coast this Saturday.
The ballistic missile has landed in Japan’s economic exclusion zone, according to officials. The launch occurred ahead of the US-South Korea military exercises, with North Korea’s Foreign Ministry threatening to take “unprecedentedly” strong action against South Korea. The missile is believed to be an intercontinental ballistic missile, and it is estimated to have travelled 900 kilometres with a maximum altitude of 5,700 kilometres.
The launch marks the first detected from North Korea since January 1 and follows a record year for weapons demonstrations from Pyongyang. North Korea has fired more than 70 ballistic missiles, including ICBMs with the potential range to reach the US mainland. The country has also conducted several launches it described as simulated nuclear attacks against South Korean and US targets while passing a law that declared the country an “irreversibly” nuclear state.
In response to North Korea’s increased activity, South Korea and key allies have ramped up joint military drills. The US-South Korea military exercises, scheduled to take place next week, will explore possible scenarios in which North Korea uses nuclear weapons and how to cope with them militarily. The exercises will also formulate crisis management plans.
The South Korean Defense Ministry said, “With a focus on North Korea’s nuclear threats, both sides will have in-depth discussions on various measures to strengthen US extended deterrence, including information sharing and consultation procedures.”
South Korea and the US are also planning to hold joint field exercises in mid-March that will be bigger than those held in the past few years. The exercises are expected to include live-fire drills.
North Korea’s Foreign Ministry has accused Washington and Seoul of planning more than 20 rounds of military drills this year, including large-scale field exercises, and described its rivals as “the arch-criminals deliberately disrupting regional peace and stability.”
Pyongyang may have created a military unit tasked with operating new intercontinental ballistic missiles, in line with its recent restructuring of the military, state media video footage from a Feb. 9 parade suggested.
Some 28,500 US troops are stationed in South Korea as a legacy of the 1950-1953 Korean War, which ended in an armistice rather than a full peace treaty, leaving the countries technically still at war.
The launch came a day after North Korea’s Foreign Ministry threatened to take “unprecedentedly” strong action against South Korea after it announced planned military exercises.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the missile appeared to have landed “within Japan’s EEZ (exclusive economic zone), west of Hokkaido.” South Korean officials said the “presumed long-range missile” was launched from the Sunan area near Pyongyang. Sunan is the site of the Pyongyang International Airport, where North Korea has conducted most of its recent ICBM tests.
The increased activity from Pyongyang has been met with ramped-up joint military drills from South Korea and key allies. This follows a scaled-back period amid the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as a fruitless diplomatic offensive by former US President Donald Trump.
