NKorea fires missiles as Blinken visits Seoul
SEOUL: North Korea fired multiple shortrange ballistic missiles on Monday in what analysts said was a calculated move to grab attention as United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits South Korea for talks.
Blinken was attending the third Summit for Democracy and met President Yoon Suk Yeol in the capital Seoul on Monday morning.
He also met his South Korean counterpart Cho Tae-yul for discussions on boosting the alliance, as Washington and Seoul look to improve their so-called extended deterrence against North Korea.
The meetings come after the US and South Korea wrapped up one of their major annual joint military training exercises last week, prompting angry retorts and livefire drills from the nuclear-armed North, which condemns all such exercises as rehearsals for invasion.
Seoul’s military said it had detected early on Monday the launch of “multiple short-range ballistic missiles,” which flew about 300 kilometers (186 miles) before coming down into the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan.
“We are closely sharing relevant information with the US and Japan and are maintaining utmost readiness,” the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
After meeting Yoon, Blinken “condemned the ... launch of ballistic missiles by [North Korea] and reaffirmed the United States’ ironclad commitment to [South Korea’s] security,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
Japan’s top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi said the North had fired three short-range ballistic missiles, which landed outside of the country’s exclusive economic zone and did not cause any damage.
The launches come just days after Seoul and Washington’s annual Freedom Shield drills, which saw the number of participating troops double this year, ended on Thursday.
Pyongyang warned this month that Seoul and Washington would pay a “dear price” over the drills, and later announced that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had guided an artillery unit it says was capable of striking the South Korean capital.
‘Highly calculated’
“It’s a highly calculated move timing-wise by Pyongyang to fire multiple missiles to show they are capable of doing such an act even when the top US diplomat is in town,” Prof. Choi Gi-il of military studies at Sangji University told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
North Korea typically stages missile launches “as a tit-for-tat” after US-South Korea joint drills, Han Kwon-hee of Korea Association of Defense Industry Studies told AFP.
Blinken’s presence only adds to their motivation, he said, as it “means more attention from Washington and adds pressure on host Seoul.”
Monday’s ballistic missile test is the North’s second this year, after Pyongyang launched one tipped with a maneuverable hypersonic warhead on January 14.
Blinken landed in South Korea on Sunday afternoon ahead of the democracy summit, which runs from March 18 to 20 and brings together government officials, nongovernmental organizations and civil society members.
Seoul is one of Washington’s key regional allies, and the US has stationed about 27,000 American soldiers in the South to help protect it against the nuclear-armed North.
Yoon has boosted ties with Washington and sought to bury the historical hatchet with former colonial power Japan to better guard against Pyongyang’s threats.
So far this year, North Korea has declared the South its “principal enemy,” jettisoned agencies dedicated to reunification and outreach, and threatened war over “even 0.001 [millimeter]” of territorial infringement.
“While South Korea conducted defense training last week alongside international partners, Kim Jong-un personally supervised several military exercises, and now while Seoul hosts a summit of democracies, North Korea fires more missiles,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.
“The Kim regime’s one-upmanship aims to show strength to its domestic audience, suggest costs on the Korean Peninsula for Seoul’s international security cooperation, and warn Washington against increasing pressure on Pyongyang.”