North Korea fires 4th round of missile tests in 1 week

North Korea on Saturday fired two short-range ballic missiles toward its eastern waters, South Korean and Japanese officials said, making it the North’s fourth round of weapons launches this week that are seen as a response to military drills among its rivals.
South Korea’s military said that it detected the two North Korean missile launches 18 minutes apart on Saturday morning coming from the North’s capital region. Japan’s Defence Minry said it also spotted the launches.

“The repeated ballic missile firings North Korea are a grave provocation that undermines peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and in the international community,” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

It said South Korea strongly condemns the launches and urges North Korea to stop testing ballic missiles. Toshiro Ino, Japan’s vice defence miner, called the launches “absolutely impermissible.”
He said the four rounds of missile testing North Korea in a week is “unprecedented.”According to South Korean and Japanese estimates, the North Korean missiles flew about 350-400 kilometres (220-250 miles) at a maximum altitude of 30-50 kilometres (20-30 miles) before they landed in the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.
Ino, the Japanese vice miner, said the missiles showed “irregular” trajectory. The five other ballic missiles fired North Korea on three occasions this week also show similar low trajectories.
A TV screen showing a news program reporting about North Korea’s missile launch with file imagery, is seen at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022. (AP Photo)
Some experts say that the weapons are a nuclear-capable, highly manoeuvrable missiles modelled after Russia’s Iskander missile.
That Iskander-like missile is capable of striking strategic targets in South Korea, including US military bases there. Saturday’s launches came a day after South Korea, Japan and the United States held their first trilateral anti-submarine drills in five years off the Korean Peninsula’s east coast.
Earlier this week, South Korean and U.S. warships conducted bilateral exercises in the area for four days. Both military drills this week involved the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and its battle group.
North Korea views such military drills among its rivals as an invasion rehearsal and often responds with its own weapons tests. The North Korean missile tests this week also came before and after US Vice President Kamala Harris visited South Korea on Thursday and reaffirmed the “ironclad” U.S. commitment to the security of its Asian allies.
This year, North Korea has carried out a record number of missile tests in what experts call an attempt to expand its weapons arsenal amid stalled nuclear diplomacy with the United States.
The weapons tested this year included nuclear-capable missiles with the ability to reach the US mainland, South Korea and Japan. South Korean and US officials say North Korea has also completed preparations to conduct a nuclear test, which would be its first in five years.
Experts say North Korean leader Kim Jong Un eventually wants to use the enlarged nuclear arsenal to pressure the United States and others accept his country as a legitimate nuclear state, a recognition he views as necessary to win the lifting of international sanctions and other concessions.
Multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions ban North Korea from testing ballic missiles and nuclear devices.
The country’s missile launches this year are seen as exploiting a divide at the UN council over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and US-China competitions.
In May, China and Russia vetoed a US-led attempt to toughen sanctions on North Korea over its ballic missile launches. “North Korea’s frequent short-range missile tests may strain the isolated state’s resources.
But because of deadlock on the UN Security Council, they are a low-cost way for the Kim regime to signal its displeasure with Washington and Seoul’s defence exercises while playing the domestic politics of countering an external threat,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.