North Korea fires short-range missile salvo ahead of US elections

North Korea fired a volley of short-range missiles early Tuesday, Seoul’s military said, Pyongyang’s second launch in days and just hours before Americans vote for a new president.

The nuclear-armed North last week test-fired what it said would be its most advanced and powerful intercontinental solid-fuel ballistic missile (ICBM) in Kim Jong Un’s first weapons test since he was accused of sending soldiers to attack Russia to help in the fight against Ukraine.

Pyongyang, which has denied the deployment, is under increasing international pressure to withdraw its troops from Russia. Seoul warned on Tuesday that thousands of soldiers were being deployed to frontline areas, including Kursk.

Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected the launch of “several short-range ballistic missiles” in waters east of the Korean Peninsula around 7:30 am (10:30 GMT) on Tuesday.

The missiles flew about 400 kilometers (248 miles) and the Seoul military said it monitored the launch in real time while sharing information with Tokyo and Washington.

“In preparation for additional launches, our military has strengthened surveillance and alertness,” it added.

Tokyo also confirmed Pyongyang’s latest weapons test, with top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi saying the North’s “repeated ballistic missile launches threaten the peace and security of our country.”

On Sunday, South Korea, Japan and the United States conducted a joint air exercise involving a US B-1B bomber, South Korean F-15K and KF-16 fighter jets and Japanese F-2 fighter jets in response to the ICBM launch .

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Such joint exercises infuriate Pyongyang, which views them as rehearsals for an invasion.

– ‘Aggressive character’ –

Pyongyang’s latest launch was “a direct response to the trilateral air exercises last weekend,” Han Kwon-hee of the Korea Association of Defense Industry Studies told AFP.

“Since it was a salvo of short-range missiles, the North is indicating that it not only has long-range missiles that can reach the US, but also short-range missiles that can target all bases in South Korea and Japan,” Han added. .

Kim Yo Jong, sister of the country’s leader and a key spokesperson, called the U.S.-South Korea-Japan exercises an “action-based declaration of the enemy’s most hostile and dangerously aggressive nature toward our Republic.”

In a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, she said the exercise “is absolute proof of the validity and urgency of the line of building the nuclear forces that we have chosen and put into practice.”

Seoul has long accused the nuclear-armed North of sending weapons to help Moscow fight Kiev and claimed Pyongyang has started deploying soldiers en masse since Kim Jong Un signed a mutual defense deal with Russian President Vladimir in June Putin.

“There are currently more than 10,000 North Korean soldiers in Russia, and we estimate that a significant portion of them are deployed in frontline areas, including Kursk,” said Jeon Ha-gyu, a spokesman for South Korea’s Defense Ministry. Tuesday.

Seoul, a major arms exporter, has said it is examining whether to send weapons directly to Ukraine in response, something it has previously opposed due to a long-standing domestic policy that prevents it from supplying weapons in active conflicts.

With its recent wave of testing, Pyongyang is showing that its contribution of weapons and troops to Russia’s war in Ukraine does not curtail its military activities closer to home, said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.

“On the contrary, cooperation with Moscow appears to be enabling blatant violations of UN Security Council resolutions.”

Robert Wood, the US deputy ambassador to the UN, on Monday condemned the North’s advancing ballistic missile program, saying Russia and China are blocking the UN from holding Pyongyang accountable.

Beijing and Moscow “have repeatedly protected the DPRK, contributed to the normalization of these tests and encouraged the DPRK to further violate the sanctions and resolutions of this Council,” he said, referring to the North by its official name.