N. KOREA TEST-FIRES MISSILE FROM SUBMARINE IN 15TH LAUNCH THIS YEAR

North Korea flight-tested a ballistic missile that was likely fired from a submarine on Saturday, South Korea’s military said, continuing a provocative streak in weapons demonstrations that may culminate with a nuclear test in the coming weeks or months.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the launch occurred from waters near the eastern port city of Sinpo, where North Korea has a major shipyard building submarines. It said the short-range missile flew 372 miles at a maximum altitude of 37 miles but it didn’t immediately provide details about the submarine that would have been involved in the launch.

The U.S. military’s Indo-pacific Command said in a statement that while the launch did not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel or territory, or to its allies, it “highlights the destabilizing impact of (North Korea’s) illicit weapons program. The U.S. commitment to the defense of the Republic of Korea and Japan remains ironclad.”

Japanese Defense Minister Nobu Kishi told reporters that the missile fell outside of Japan’s exclusive economic zone and that no damage to aircraft or vessels was reported.

South Korea’s national security director Suh Hoon and other senior officials during an emergency meeting denounced the launch and urged North Korea to return to long-stalled talks aimed at defusing the nuclear standoff, Seoul’s presidential office said.

It was apparently North Korea’s first demonstration of a submarinelaunched ballistic missile system since October last year, when it fired a new short-range missile from the 8.24 Yongung — its only known submarine capable of launching a missile. The October underwater launch was the North’s first in two years.

On Wednesday, the South Korean and Japanese militaries detected a suspected ballistic missile fired from near the capital, Pyongyang. Both exercises come ahead of the inauguration on Tuesday of South Korean President-elect Yoon Suk Yeol, who has vowed to take a tougher approach over the North’s nuclear ambitions.

Yoon’s office said in a statement that his government will pursue “actual deterrence ability” against the North’s nuclear and missile threat, but didn’t specify how. Yoon has vowed to strengthen South Korea’s defense in conjunction with its alliance with the United States, which he said would include enhancing missile striking capabilities.

So far this year, North Korea has fired missiles 15 times. They include the country’s first test of an intercontinental ballistic missile since 2017 in March that demonstrated a potential range to reach the entirety of the U.S. mainland.

North Korea has been exploiting a favorable environment to push forward its weapons program with the U.N. Security Council divided and effectively paralyzed over Russia’s war on Ukraine. The unusually fast pace in testing activity underscores a brinkmanship aimed at forcing the United States to accept the idea of the North as a nuclear power and remove crippling sanctions, experts say.