Days After End Of US-South Korea-Japan Drill North Korea Launches Ballistic Missile: Report (Representational image@ USForcesKorea)
North Korea launches at least one short-ranged ballistic missile off its east coast a day after the country vowed “offensive and overwhelming” responses to a new US military drill with South Korea and Japan, said South Korea military. It said the missile was launched from Pyongyang’s southeastern town of Jangyon.
The military also said that an additional, unidentified ballistic missile launch trajectory was detected 10 minutes later, which suggests that North Korea might have performed two missile launches. The Joint Chiefs of Staff said South Korea’s military has boosted its surveillance poster and is closely exchanging information with the United Sates and Japan.
The missile launch came two days after South Korea, US and Japan has ended their new multidomain trilateral drills in the region. In recent years, three have been expanding their trilateral security partnership to have a better cope with Pyongyang’s evolving nuclear threats and Beijing’s increasing assertiveness in the region.
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The drill named as “Freedom Edge” was meant to increase the sophistication of previous exercises with simultaneous air and naval drills which are geared towards improving joint ballistic-missile defense, anti-submarine warfare, surveillance and other skill capabilities. The three-day drill involved a US aircraft carrier as well as destroyers, fighter jets, and mad helicopters from the three countries.
North Korea’s Foreign Ministry issued a lengthy statement strongly denouncing the “Freedom Edge” drill, calling it as the “Asian version of NATO”. The statement said the drill openly destroyed the security environment on the Korean Peninsula and contained a US intention to lay siege to China and exert pressure on Russia.
Pyongyang said it will “firmly defend the sovereignty, security and interests of the state and peace in the region through offensive and overwhelming countermeasures”.
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On Wednesday last week, North Korea has launched what it called a multiwarhead missile in the first known launch of a developmental, advanced weapon meant to defeat US and South Korean missile defences. While North claimed the launch was successful, South Korea dismissed as a deception to cover up a failed launch.
Recently, the North has floated several trash-carrying balloons towards South in what it has described as a tit-for-tat response to South Korean activists sending political leaflets through their own balloon.
