SEOUL, South Korea — On Sunday, North Korea fired eight short-range missiles at the sea, South Korea’s military reported. This was a provocation in weapons demonstrations this past year, which U.S. officials and South Korean officials fear could lead to a nuclear explosion.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff of South Korea said that the missiles were fired over 35 minutes in succession from the Sunan area, near Pyongyang. The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff didn’t immediately give an exact distance, but they noted that the military in South Korea has increased its surveillance to ensure the North doesn’t fire more missiles.
The launch occurred just days after the U.S. Aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan completed a three-day naval drill in the Philippine Sea with South Korea. This was apparently their first joint drill since November 2017. As the two countries seek to improve their defense exercises against growing North Korean threats,
This launch marked the 18th round in North Korea’s missile tests in 2022. It was also the first intercontinental ballistic missile demonstrations in almost five years. As it continues to use a favorable environment for weapons development, the U.N. Security Council split over Russia’s war against Ukraine has been a hindrance to its weapon development.
Experts believe that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s brinkmanship aims to force the United States into accepting the idea of North Korea as a nuclear power. This will allow the US to negotiate security and economic concessions from a position where they are stronger.
Officials from the U.S. and South Korea say that there are indications that North Korea is continuing to prepare for its nuclear test site in Punggye-ri, a northeastern city. North Korea’s next nuclear testing would be its seventh since 2006, and its first since September 2017, when it claimed that it had detonated a thermonuclear weapon to fit onto its ICBMs.
Sung Kim, the special envoy of the United States to North Korea, stated that Washington was “preparing for all contingencies” and working closely with its Asian allies. He spoke at a trilateral meeting held in Seoul, South Korea and Japan over North Korea’s nuclear standoff.
Although the United States has pledged to press for more international sanctions in case North Korea conducts another nuclear test, it appears that there are no prospects of further U.N. Security Council actions.
Russia and China vetoed a U.S. sponsored resolution that would have imposed further sanctions on North Korea for its latest ballistic test on May 25. South Korea claimed the tests involved an ICBM flying on a medium-range trajectory with two short-range weapons and a ICBM. These tests occurred as Biden was wrapping up his visit to South Korea, Japan and China. He reaffirmed America’s commitment to protect both allies against the North’s nuclear threat.
In March, North Korea launched an ICBM at almost full-range capacity. It flew higher than any weapon it had ever tried and lasted longer than any other weapon. This demonstrated its potential to reach all of the U.S. mainland.
Since 2019, nuclear negotiations between Washington, Pyongyang and North Korea have been stalled due to disagreements over exchanging crippling U.S. sanctions against North Korea and North Korea’s disarmament measures.
Experts say that Kim is trying to transform the dormant talks on denuclearization into a bilateral arms reduction negotiation with the United States despite deepening economic woes.
Kim’s pressure campaign comes at a time when the country is dealing with a deadly Covid-19 epidemic across his largely unvaccinated autocracy, which lacks public health tools.
