North Korea fires two short-range missiles into Sea of Japan
Seoul, Oct 6 (EFE).- North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles on Thursday, just two days after launching an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) that flew over Japan, significantly increasing tension in the region.
The South Korean military said in a statement the missiles were fired from Samseok area in Pyongyang into the Sea of Japan at around 6.01 am and 06.23 am (21:01 and 21:23 GMT Wednesday).
This is the sixth North Korean launch in 10 days and comes after Seoul and Washington announced the return of the US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan to waters off the Korean Peninsula in response to the IRBM that Pyongyang fired on Tuesday.
Pyongyang on Thursday condemned the return of the USS Ronald Reagan, which last week carried out military exercises with the South Korean and Japanese navies in the area.
“The DPRK is watching the U.S. posing a serious threat to the stability of the situation on the Korean peninsula and in its vicinity by redeploying the carrier task force in the waters off the Korean peninsula,” a brief statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
The statement even acknowledged that the launch of the IRBM on Tuesday was a response to the South Korea-US joint drills last week and criticized the fact that the US and “its satellites” are now seeking sanctions from the UN Security Council to its “just counteraction measures” to the maneuvers, which it accused of “escalating the military tensions on the Korean peninsula.”
The Japanese government believes that the missiles fired Thursday flew between 350 and 800 kilometers at a maximum altitude of 50-100 km and fell outside its exclusive economic zone.
The IRBM launched on Tuesday was North Korea’s longest-distance projectile ever, traveling some 4,500 kilometers after flying over northern Japan and landing in the Pacific Ocean.
North Korea, which has been completely isolated from the outside world since the start of the pandemic and approved a weapons modernization plan in 2021, has been preparing for months to carry out a new nuclear test, experts believe, based on satellite imagery. EFE
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