North Korea yet again launched two more short-range ballistic missiles on Thursday morning. The launches come two days after the nuclear-armed country fired an intermediate-range ballistic missile that went past Japan to fall into the Pacific Ocean. Signaling the strengthening of its weapons program, North Korea’s latest launch comes in less than two weeks.
The Blame Game
North Korea termed its recent campaigns as “just counteraction measures against the joint US and South Korean military drills.” North Korea’s fifth missile launch prompted an emergency meeting of the United Nations (UN) Security Council Meeting.
At the meeting, the US blamed Russia and China for giving North Korea protection from stronger sanctions. The US ambassador to the UN said, “The two countries had given North Korea blanket protection by opposing further sanctions.”
According to Japan’s Defense Ministry, the two short-range ballistic missiles landed outside Japan’s economic exclusion zone. According to the South Korean military, they were launched from an area close to North Korea’s capital, Pyongyang, into the waters off the east coast.
In recent times, the US has joined South Korea and Japan in military drills to strengthen security in the region and also give a strong response to a North Korean attack. These drills include large-scale naval operations and anti-submarine exercises. This has alarmed Pyongyang and prompted a response from the leader, Kim Jong-un, who considers this a possible warlike situation and said, “This is an escalation of the military tensions on the Korean Peninsula.”
Jong-un’s statement rejected the move by the US on Wednesday to redeploy the nuclear-powered USS Ronald Reagan near the Korean Peninsula for a second visit in less than a month.
On Wednesday, the three allies—the US, Japan, and South Korea—carried out more drills, which they said were a response to Tuesday’s launch. The US made it clear that there was “no equivalency between a banned missile test-fire and security drills.”
As the Security Council wrapped up a meeting on North Korea's dangerous ballistic missile launches, we learned that Pyongyang launched two more missiles.
Make no mistake: the two Council members that are blocking us from taking action are enabling North Korea.
— Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield (@USAmbUN) October 6, 2022
According to South Korea and Japan, the first missile fired on Thursday at around 6:00 local time (21:00 GMT) traveled 350 kilometers (217 miles) and reached an altitude of around 100 kilometers, while the second missile covered an estimated 800 kilometers (km) at an altitude of about 50 kilometers.
