North Korea has conducted two additional ballistic missile tests, according to South Korea.
North Korea launched two short-range ballistic missiles into its eastern seas on Monday, extending its weapons show as the US sent an aircraft carrier strike group to surrounding waters for military exercises with the South.
The two missiles were launched from a western inland area south of Pyongyang between 7:47 a.m. and 8 a.m., traveling approximately 370 kilometers (229 miles) before falling at sea, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. The missiles flew on a “irregular” course, reaching a maximum height of 50 kilometers (31 miles) before falling beyond Japan’s exclusive economic zone, according to Japan’s military.
Japan has previously used the name to refer to a North Korean solid-fuel missile that appears to be based on Russia’s Iskander mobile ballistic system and is meant to be agile in low-altitude flight to avoid South Korean missile defenses.
The launches occurred a day before the arrival of the American aircraft carrier USS Nimitz and its strike group in the South Korean port of Busan. The Nimitz and its strike group will take part in maneuvers with South Korean warships in international seas near the South Korean vacation island of Jeju on April 3, according to the South Korean Defense Ministry.
The launches marked the North’s sixth missile launch this month, as it ramps up military operations in retaliation for US-South Korean military drills.
South Korean and Japanese armies condemned the North’s recent launches as dangerous provocations endangering regional peace and breaching UN Security Council resolutions, and said they were working with the US to further evaluate the missiles.
North Korea has launched more than 20 ballistic and cruise missiles this year in an attempt to push the US to acknowledge its nuclear status and negotiate sanctions relief from a position of strength.
North Korea’s rocket launches this month included an intercontinental ballistic missile flight test and a succession of short-range missiles designed to overcome South Korean missile defenses as it attempts to demonstrate its capacity to perform nuclear attacks on both South Korea and the US mainland.
The North staged a three-day exercise last week that simulated nuclear assaults on South Korean targets, while North Korean leader Kim Jong Un blasted joint military drills between the US and South Korea as invasion preparations. According to the allies, the drills are defensive in nature.
The North’s tests apparently featured a putative nuclear-armed underwater drone capable of triggering a massive “radioactive tsunami” that would destroy navy vessels and ports. Analysts were suspicious of North Korean claims about the drone or whether it poses a significant new danger, but the tests underscored the North’s willingness to expanding its nuclear threats.
Following the North’s confirmation of the drone test on Friday, South Korea’s air force disclosed information about a five-day joint aerial practice with the US last week, which included live-fire displays of air-to-air and air-to-ground weaponry. The air force said the exercise was designed to test precision strike capabilities and reaffirm the credibility of Seoul’s “three-axis” strategy against North Korean nuclear threats, which includes preemptively striking potential targets, intercepting incoming missiles, and neutralizing the North’s leadership and key military facilities.
North Korea is already coming off a record year for missile launches, firing more than 70 missiles in 2022, when it also enacted an escalatory nuclear policy permitting pre-emptive nuclear attacks in a wide spectrum of circumstances in which it perceives its leadership to be under threat.