North Korea launched two ballistic missiles on Thursday, according to Seoul’s military, the third such launch in less than a week and just hours after US Vice President Kamala Harris left South Korea.
According to the South Korean military, it detected the launch of “two short-range ballistic missiles from the Sunchon area in South Pyongan province.” “Our military has reinforced monitoring and surveillance and is maintaining maximum readiness in coordination with the US,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff of South Korea said in a statement. The coast guard of Japan also confirmed a possible North Korean ballistic missile launch, citing information from Tokyo’s defence ministry.
According to NHK, the projectile “appears to have fallen outside Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone,” citing unnamed defence ministry sources. Harris visited South Korea’s heavily fortified border with the nuclear-armed North as part of a trip to strengthen the security alliance with Seoul.
Speaking at the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), Harris stated that the US was “ironclad” in its commitment to South Korean defence, adding that the allies were “aligned” in their response to the growing threat posed by the North’s weapons programmes.
Washington has approximately 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea to help protect it from the North, and the allies are conducting a large-scale joint naval exercise this week to demonstrate their strength.
Pyongyang conducted two prohibited ballistic missile launches in the days leading up to Harris’ arrival, continuing a year-long streak of weapons tests. According to Seoul and Tokyo, the North fired a short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) on Sunday and two SRBMs on Wednesday. Seoul and Washington have increased joint military exercises, which they insist are purely defensive, under the South’s hawkish new President Yoon Suk-yeol.
