North Korea fires missiles again as U.S. carrier redeployed
North Korea fired two ballistic missiles early Thursday from near Pyongyang toward the Sea of Japan, the sixth round of launches since late September, after a U.S. aircraft carrier was redeployed to the waters, the Japanese government and the South Korean military said.
The launches came just two days after Pyongyang fired a ballistic missile over the Japanese archipelago for the first time in five years, and a day after the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan was redeployed to the Sea of Japan for a joint drill.
The United States, South Korea and Japan conducted the drill in waters off the Korean Peninsula on Thursday in response to the North’s missile provocation, the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
The North Korean projectiles fell outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone and flew between 350 and 800 kilometers at a maximum altitude of 50 to 100 km, Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said, adding there were no reports of damage to Japanese aircraft and ships.
The JCS said two short-range ballistic missiles were launched near the Samsok area in Pyongyang between 6:01 am and 6:23 am. The first one traveled about 350 km while reaching an altitude of about 80 km at a speed of about Mach 5 and the second one flew about 800 km at the maximum altitude of about 60 km at a speed of around Mach 6, it added.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida slammed North Korea’s repeated firings of missiles over a short span of time as “absolutely unacceptable.” Tokyo lodged a protest with North Korea through its embassy in Beijing, Hamada said.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol vowed to protect his people through his nation’s strong alliance with the United States and security cooperation between Seoul, Washington and Tokyo.
The U.S. State Department also condemned the missile tests, saying North Korea’s launches were in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions and posed “a threat” to neighbors and the international community.
While reiterating its call for Pyongyang to engage in dialogue, a department spokesperson said in a statement that U.S. commitments to the defense of Japan and South Korea remained “ironclad.”
North Korea’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement early Thursday saying it “strongly condemns” the United States and other countries for referring Tuesday’s ballistic missile launch to the U.N. Security Council.
The ministry said Tuesday’s launch was part of “just counteraction measures” in response to the U.S.-South Korea drills that were “escalating the military tensions” on the Korean Peninsula.
As for the redeployment of the U.S. aircraft carrier, North Korea was “watching the U.S. posing serious threat to the stability of the situation” on the Korean Peninsula and its vicinity.