S. Korea reports 8-missile salvo by North

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea test-fired a salvo of eight short-range ballistic missiles toward the sea today, South Korea’s military said, extending a provocative streak in weapons demonstrations this year that U.S. and South Korean officials say may culminate with a nuclear test explosion.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missiles were fired in succession over 35 minutes from the Sunan area near the capital, Pyongyang. It didn’t immediately say how far the missiles flew but noted the South Korean military has heightened its monitoring in case the North fires more missiles.

The launch came a day after the U.S. aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan concluded a three-day naval drill with South Korea in the Philippine Sea, apparently their first drill involving a carrier since November 2017, as the countries move to upgrade their defense exercises in the face of growing North Korean threats.

The launch was North Korea’s 18th round of missile tests in 2022 alone — a streak that has included the country’s first demonstrations of intercontinental ballistic missiles in nearly five years — as it continues a push toward weapons development at a time when the U.N. Security Council is divided over Russia’s war on Ukraine.

South Korean and U.S. officials say there are signs that North Korea is also pressing ahead with preparations at its nuclear testing ground in the northeastern town of Punggye-ri. The North’s next nuclear test would be its seventh since 2006 and the first since September 2017, when it claimed to have detonated a thermonuclear bomb to fit on its ICBMs.

On Friday, President Joe Biden’s special envoy for North Korea, Sung Kim, said Washington is “preparing for all contingencies” in close coordination with its Asian allies as he participated in a trilateral meeting in Seoul with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts over the nuclear standoff with North Korea.

Nuclear negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang have stalled since 2019 over disagreements in exchanging the release of U.S.-led sanctions against North Korea and the North’s disarmament steps.