North Korea fired three more ballistic missiles at the Sea of Japan today, including two short-range ballistic missiles and one ICBM, but South Korean forces said they failed to test. United has condemned the launch of the ICBM: Pyongyang violated UN resolutions, said Washington and urged the imposition of sanctions. The United States and South Korea also agreed to expand joint air exercises that began Oct. 31.
One of the missiles set off the anti-aircraft alarm, prompting residents of an island in South Korea and residents of parts of northern Japan to run for cover. Originally, the Japanese Prime Minister’s office claimed a missile had passed over the country, but this was later corrected by the defense.
“The United States condemns the DPRK’s launch of an ICBM,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement, confirming South Korea’s news of the missile launched from the north into the United States in the early hours of this morning was fired. “This action underscores the need for all countries to fully implement UN Security Council resolutions related to the DPRK,” the spokesman continued, using the official name of the North.
The Seoul Army said it had “discovered a long-range ballistic missile believed to have been launched into the Baltic Sea in the Sunan area of Pyongyang around 07:40 (23:40 in Italy).” the Sea of Japan. Shortly thereafter, the military discovered what “believed to be two short-range ballistic missiles fired from Kaechon in South Pyongan province at around 08:39,” he added.
Subsequently, the military announced that “North Korea’s ICBM launch likely ended in failure.”
Yesterday the North had tested a barrage of at least 23 rockets of various types and fired about 100 artillery shells from Kosong County – also towards the sea, in a buffer zone set up in 2018 to defuse tensions – and in its action covered a broad spectrum from the east side of the Sea of Japan to the west side of the Yellow Sea.
One of the missiles had fallen from a divided Korean peninsula under the northern border line, near southern territorial waters, into the Sea of Japan for the first time in more than 70 years. Seoul’s response had been furious at what constituted “actually a territorial invasion,” South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol denounced before the Security Council, while “taking swift action to make the North pay for the provocations.”
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