North Korea on Friday fired a short-range ballistic missile and flew nearly a dozen warplanes near the southern border, Yonhap news agency reported — the latest in a series of military provocations that have escalated tensions on the Korean peninsula.
Leader Kim Jong Un has overseen a streak of ballistic missile launches in recent weeks, which Pyongyang has described as tactical nuclear exercises simulating the destruction of airports and military installations across South Korea.
On Friday, the North’s military said its latest actions were in response to a “provocative” South Korean artillery drill near the border.
The Korean People’s Army “took strong military countermeasures,” the Korean Central News Agency statement said.
The KPA “sends a stern warning to the South Korean military’s reckless actions fueling military tensions in frontline areas,” the statement said.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said they detected the rocket launch from the Sunan area in Pyongyang at 1:49 a.m., according to Yonhap. She did not give any further details.
Earlier, the JCS said 10 militants were spotted flying 25 kilometers (15 miles) north of the inter-Korean border late Thursday through early Friday, crossing a Seoul-designated “reconnaissance line” that triggered an automatic operational response.
Seoul has encrypted military aircraft, including F-35A fighter jets, according to JCS, Yonhap reported.
According to state media, Pyongyang tested two long-range strategic cruise missiles on Wednesday – tests personally overseen by Kim.
The cruise missiles — which fly at lower altitudes than ballistic missiles, making them harder to detect and intercept — flew 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles) over sea before hitting their targets, KCNA said.
Kim expressed “great satisfaction” with the latest tests, which he said showed the country’s nuclear combat forces were “in full readiness for actual war,” and sent a “clear warning to the enemy,” KCNA said.
– fear of nuclear test –
With talks at a long stall and the U.N. deadlock linked to Ukraine preventing the chance of fresh sanctions, Kim has doubled down on the development and testing of his banned nuclear arsenal.
Officials in Seoul and Washington have been warning for months that Pyongyang is poised to conduct another nuclear test — it would be the country’s seventh.
Kim said North Korea will “focus all efforts on the endless and accelerated development of national nuclear warfare forces,” KCNA reported Thursday.
At a key party convention in January 2021, he made the acquisition of tactical nuclear weapons — smaller, lighter weapons for use on the battlefield — a top priority.
Pyongyang is not technically banned by the United Nations from testing cruise missiles, but all launches of ballistic missiles violate sanctions and are usually flagged by Seoul or Tokyo. None had alerted the Wednesday test.
