PYONGYANG, 18 Dec 2022:
North Korea fired two ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan today, the South Korean military said, in what looked like a new weapons test by Pyongyang.
According to Yonhap news agency, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected the North Korean launches from the Tongchang-ri area, North Pyongan Province.
The military did not provide more details on the missiles.
“While strengthening our monitoring and surveillance activities, our military is maintaining a full readiness posture in close cooperation with the United States,” the JCS said in a text message sent to reporters.
Japanese broadcaster NHK said the defence ministry reported a launch from North Korea of “what appears to be a ballistic missile.”
The ministry reported that missile fell outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone.
The new test comes days after the UN General Assembly approved a resolution calling for intensifying global efforts to improve the human rights situation in North Korea.
North Korea Thursday tested a high-thrust solid-fuel motor, a development that could lead to a new type of more efficient intercontinental-range ballistic missile (ICBM).
The North Korean military conducted the test in the presence of Kim Jong-un at a satellite launch centre that the international community believes Pyongyang uses to test long-range missiles.
The development of a solid fuel ICBM is one of the objectives of Kim’s regime for the North Korean weapons modernisation plan approved in January 2021.
“This important test has provided a sure sci-tech guarantee for the development of another new type of strategic weapon system,” the state-run Korea Central News Agency reported.
Tension on the Korean Peninsula is heightened amid a record number of weapons tests by the North Korean regime this year, large-scale joint military drills by South Korea and the US, and the possibility that Pyongyang was ready to carry out its first nuclear test since 2017.
– EFE