North Korea fired two ballistic missiles into its East Sea, the Japanese and South Korean militaries said, just hours after a US nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine arrived at a South Korean port for the first time in four decades.
Both missiles fired early Wednesday appeared to have landed outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone, Japan’s defense ministry said. North Korea has conducted a second solid-fuel missile test.
The launch came nearly a week after North Korea test-fired its newest solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile, the Hwasong-18, in what Pyongyang said was a warning to the US and other adversaries. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) called on North Korea to stop such launches.
JCS said “We strongly condemn North Korea’s successive ballistic missile launches as serious provocative acts that undermine the peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula and the international community and are a clear violation of UN Security Council resolutions”.
The first missile reached an altitude of 50 km (31 miles) and covered a range of 550 km (341 miles), while the second missile rose to an altitude of 50 km and flew 600 km (372 miles), Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada told reporters. Japan lodged a protest against the missile launch through diplomatic channels, he said.
The meeting also coincided with the arrival of the USS Kentucky at the Busan Naval Base, “the first port visit of a US strategic nuclear-capable submarine (SSBN) since the USS Robert E. Lee in March 1981,” Yonhap reported.
The US military said it was aware of Wednesday morning’s missile launch and had consulted closely with its allies and partners. The launches did not appear to pose an immediate threat to the US or its allies, but the events underscore the destabilizing impact of North Korea’s illicit weapons program, the US Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement.
On Tuesday, a US soldier facing disciplinary action fled across the inter-Korean border into North Korea. The soldier is believed to be in North Korean custody, Washington said, sparking a new crisis between the two enemies.
Leif-Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Ewha University in Seoul, said the latest launch had more to do with the arrival of a US submarine and a meeting on Washington’s extended deterrence to South Korea.
“North Korea’s latest ballistic missile launch is unlikely to be related to a US soldier crossing the inter-Korean border, but even such an incident will not help matters,” Easley said in a statement.
“As Pyongyang seeks to assert its nuclear threats and capabilities over South Korea, it is undoubtedly opposing Seoul and Washington’s nuclear advisory group and the visit of a nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine,” he said.
