Officials in Seoul said that North Korea launched a ballistic missile in the direction of its eastern waters hours after warning of a “fiercer military retaliation” to American moves to increase its security presence in the area.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff of South Korea stated that an “unidentified ballistic missile” was launched on Thursday but provided no further information.
In contrast to Washington and Seoul, Pyongyang has conducted a record number of missile tests this year, possibly along with an intercontinental ballistic missile that failed.
Several of the drills included Japan.
Amid conflict, the presidents of the US, South Korea, and Japan had trilateral discussions last week on the margins of the East Asia Summit in Cambodia and vowed to cooperate to “strengthen deterrence.”
Following the talks, US President Joe Biden, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida issued a joint statement in which they “strongly criticised” North Korea’s “record number of ballistic missile launches” and vowed to “build still-closer trilateral linkages, in the security sphere and beyond.”
Biden reiterated that the US was committed to protecting Seoul and Tokyo and that it has “backed by the full range of capabilities, including nuclear” to do so. They also cautioned Pyongyang against carrying out a seventh nuclear test.
Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui of North Korea said on Thursday that the three nations’ “war drills for aggression” would not restrain her country but would instead make them a “more serious, realistic, and inevitable threat” to themselves.
In a statement published by the official KCNA news agency, Choe remarked “The keener the US is on the ‘bolstered offer of extended deterrence to its allies and the more they intensify provocative and bluffing military activities … the fiercer the DPRK’s military counteraction will be.”
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, as her nation is known, was denoted by the initials DPRK.
“The US will be well aware that it is gambling, for which it will certainly regret,” she continued.
The military exercises being conducted by the North are “legal and appropriate counteractions,” according to Choe.
