North Korea fired a short-range ballistic missile toward the ocean off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula on Sunday, in response to South Korea and Japan, the most recent in a barrage of weapons tests from the nuclear-armed state.
The missile, launched from the Dongchang-ri site on the west coast around 11:05 a.m., flew some 500 miles before hitting a goal, in response to a South Korean military statement.
Japan’s Defense Ministry said the missile flew as high as 30 miles.
Seoul has condemned the recent ballistic missile launches by the North as a “clear violation” of a U.N. Security Council resolution.
Soon after the launch, South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense said the U.S. deployed a B-1B strategic bomber to a joint air drill, which Seoul and Washington say they’re holding to strengthen prolonged deterrence.
The launches have also prompted criticism from Tokyo and Washington.
“North Korea’s behavior threatens international peace and security, and is unacceptable,” Japan’s state minister of defense, Toshiro Ino, told a news conference, adding that Japan had protested strongly via North Korea’s embassy in Beijing.
The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said Sunday’s launch doesn’t pose a right away threat to U.S. personnel or its allies. However the recent missile launches highlight the destabilizing impact of Pyongyang’s illegal weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs, it said in a press release.
The North on Thursday fired a suspected intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) into the ocean between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, hours before South Korea’s president flew to Tokyo for a summit that discussed ways to counter the North.
Pyongyang said Thursday’s ICBM launch was a warning against the U.S.-South Korea military drills, state media KCNA reported.
South Korean and American forces kicked off the 11-day drills, dubbed “Freedom Shield 23”, per week ago on a scale not seen since 2017.
North Korea also criticized the U.S. and U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, KCNA reported later within the day, for bringing up its human rights abuses at a recent informal meeting of the United Nations Security Council, describing the move as a “serious challenge” to its sovereignty.
“The U.S. launched a ‘human rights’ campaign against the DPRK within the U.N. arena while staging the aggressive joint military exercise which poses a grave threat to our national security,” North Korea’s Everlasting Mission to the U.N. was quoted as saying by state media.
