North Korea launches ballistic missile, threatens ‘fiercer’ military response
North Korea launched a short-range ballistic missile Thursday toward its eastern waters, South Korea’s military said, hours after the North threatened to launch “fiercer” military responses to the US bolstering its security commitment to its allies South Korea and Japan.
South Korea’s military detected the launch from the North’s eastern coastal Wonsan area at 10:48am local time, the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. It said South Korea has boosted its surveillance of North Korea while maintaining a military readiness and a close coordination with the United States.
It was North Korea’s first ballistic missile firing in eight days and the latest in its barrage of tests in recent months.
North Korea previously said some of the tests were simulations of nuclear attacks on South Korean and US targets. Many experts say North Korea would eventually want to enhance its nuclear capability to wrest bigger concessions from its rivals.
Earlier on Thursday, North Korean foreign minister Choe Son Hue warned that a recent US-South Korea-Japan accord would leave tensions on the Korean Peninsula “more unpredictable.”
Choe’s statement was North Korea’s first official response to president Joe Biden’s trilateral summit with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts in Cambodia on Sunday. In their joint statement, the three leaders strongly condemned North Korea’s recent missile tests and agreed to work together to strengthen deterrence.
At the summit, President Biden reaffirmed his commitment to defend South Korea and Japan with a full range of capabilities, including nuclear arms.
Choe said the more the US and its allies “intensify provocative and bluffing military activities … the fiercer [North Korea’s] military counteraction will be.”
“The US will be well aware that it is gambling, for which it will certainly regret.”
North Korea has steadfastly maintained its recent weapons tests are legitimate military responses to what it calls military drills between US and South Korean forces, which it sees as a precursor to an invasion. Washington and Seoul have said their exercises are defensive in nature.
In recent months, South Korean and U.S. troops have expanded their regular exercises and resumed trilateral training with Japan in response to North Korea’s push to enlarge its nuclear and missile arsenals.
There have been concerns that North Korea might conduct its first nuclear test in five years as the next step in bolstering its military capability against the United States and its allies. US and South Korean officials say North Korea has finished preparations to conduct a nuclear test explosion in a remote testing facility.
Some experts say the test, if made, would be used to develop nuclear warheads to be placed on short-range missiles capable of hitting key targets in South Korea, including US military bases. They say North Korea would eventually aim to use its boosted arsenal as leverage to pressure the United States into making concessions in future negotiations.