North Korea test-fired a barrage of short-range ballistic missiles from multiple locations toward the sea on Sunday, South Korea’s military said, extending a provocative streak in weapons demonstrations this year that US and South Korean officials say may culminate with a nuclear test explosion. Possibly setting a single-day record for North Korean ballistic launches, eight missiles were fired in succession over 35 minutes from at least four different locations, including from western and eastern coastal areas and two inland areas north of and near the capital, Pyongyang, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
It said the missiles flew 68 to 416 miles at maximum altitudes of 15 to 56 miles, reports the AP. Hours later, Japan and the United States conducted a joint ballistic missile exercise aimed at showing their “rapid response capability" and “strong determination” to counter threats, Japan’s Defense Ministry said in a statement. Discussing the launches with his national security officials, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol lamented that North Korea was firing missiles at a pace of once every nine days this year. Indeed, the launches marked North Korea’s 18th round of missile tests in 2022 alone—a streak that has included the country’s first demonstrations of intercontinental ballistic missiles in nearly five years.
Experts say North Korean leader Kim Jong Un wants to force the United States to accept the idea of the North as a nuclear power and negotiate economic and security concessions from a position of strength. South Korean and US officials say there are signs that North Korea is also pressing ahead with preparations at its nuclear testing ground in the northeastern town of Punggye-ri. The North’s next nuclear test would be its seventh since 2006 and the first since September 2017, when it claimed to have detonated a thermonuclear bomb to fit on its ICBMs. (More North Korea stories.)
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