(Bloomberg) — North Korea test-launched a short-range ballistic missile, fired barrages of artillery and flew about 10 warplane near the inter-Korean border, saying its actions were a stern warning to South Korea for recent military moves.
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The missile was launched at 1:49 a.m. Friday from an area near Pyongyang’s main international airport. It flew for about 700 kilometers (435 miles), hitting an altitude of about 50 kms and reaching speeds of Mach 6, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
The moves add to a series of escalatory steps in the region that have included Kim Jong Un’s regime firing off a dozen ballistic missiles since late September, sending jets near the border and sternly criticizing the US for deploying its USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier group to the region, where it conducted joint naval drills with South Korea and Japan.
The US, South Korea and Japan have all warned that North Korea is readying for a nuclear test, which would be its first in five years and seventh overall. The test might be used to advance Kim’s pursuit of miniaturized nuclear warheads that he could mount on missiles to strike the US allies that host the bulk of America’s troops in Asia.
Washington, Tokyo and Seoul have all promised a stern and coordinated punishment it Pyongyang goes ahead with a nuclear test, which would also be a violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions.
South Korea’s National Security Council said in a statement that it condemned the latest provocation from North Korea. South Korea also said it dispatched its F-35 fighter jets after the North flew military aircraft near the border.
An unnamed spokesman for the General Staff of North Korea’s army said it took “strong military countermeasures,” to moves by South Korea, which it accused of conducting live-fire artillery drills near the border, the state’s official Korean Central News Agency reported Friday.
North Korea fired 170 artillery rounds between 1:20 a.m. and 3:07 a.m., South Korea’s Joint Chiefs said. It flew the warplanes in the hours before firing off the missile and the artillery rounds, it added.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s government also stepped up pressure by expanding the government’s list of sanctions on its neighbor for the first time in five years. It designated 15 North Korean individuals and 16 organizations that contributed to the North’s nuclear and missile development as targets of independent sanctions, the Foreign Ministry said.
The US Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement that it was aware of “a ballistic missile launch” by North Korea. “We have assessed that this event does not pose an immediate threat to US personnel or territory, or to our allies,” the command said.
Kim has ignored the Biden administration’s calls for him to return to nuclear disarmament talks that have been stalled for about three years. State media said this week he reaffirmed his opposition to negotiations with the US after declaring in September that North Korea would “never give up nuclear arms or denuclearize first.”
The North Korean leader is finding space to ramp up provocations and conduct tit-for-tat military moves against the US and its allies as the Biden administration focuses on Russia’s war in Ukraine. Russia and China, two long-time partners of North Korea, have veto power at the UN Security Council and have shown no intent to punish Kim with extra sanctions.
(Updated with details on military moves.)
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