SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea fired three short-range ballistic missiles at its eastern waters in its latest arms show on Saturday, a day after rival South Korea conducted a missile launch linked to its push to build space-based surveillance to watch the North.
Tensions between rival Koreas rose this week as South Korea accused North Korea of flying five drones over the tense border for the first time in five years, prompting it to send its own drones north.
South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff said in a statement on Saturday morning they spotted the three launches from a landlocked area south of Pyongyang, the north’s capital. The three missiles flew about 350 kilometers (220 miles) before landing in the waters between the Korean peninsula and Japan. The estimated range suggests that the tested missiles could target South Korea.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff called the launches “a serious provocation” that undermines international peace. It said South Korea remains ready to “overwhelm” any provocation by North Korea.
The US Indo-Pacific Command said the launches underscore “the destabilizing effect” of North Korea’s illicit weapons programs and that US commitments to defend South Korea and Japan “remain unwavering”. Earlier on Saturday, the Japanese Ministry of Defense also reported the alleged launching of ballistic missiles by North Korea.
The South Korean military scrambled fighter jets and helicopters on Monday, but failed to shoot down any of the North Korean drones before they flew back home or disappeared from South Korean radar. One of the North Korean drones flew as far north as Seoul, sparking safety fears among many in the south.
South Korea flew three more of its surveillance drones over the border in an unusual area on Monday. South Korea held large-scale military drills Thursday to simulate shooting down drones.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has called for strengthening his country’s air defense network and pledged to stand firm against North Korean provocations.
Since taking office in May, Yoon’s government has expanded regular military exercises with the US in the face of the mounting nuclear threat from North Korea. North Korea has called such drills an invasion rehearsal and has argued its recent missile tests are its response. However, some experts say North Korea is using South Korea-US training as an excuse to modernize its arsenal and increase its leverage over future deals with the US
Before the launches on Saturday, North Korea had already tested more than 70 missiles this year. Many of these were nuclear-capable weapons designed to attack the US mainland and its allies South Korea and Japan.
Later on Saturday, senior diplomats from South Korea, Japan and the United States jointly condemned the North’s launches after a phone call. They agreed to step up their deterrence against North Korea and work together to achieve the north’s denuclearization, according to South Korea’s and Japan’s foreign ministries.
On Friday, South Korea tested a solid-fuel rocket, a type of launch vehicle it hopes to use to put its first spy satellite into orbit in the coming years.
Defense officials said it was a follow-up test to the country’s first successful launch of a solid fuel rocket in March. The unannounced launch sparked a brief public fear of a UFO appearance or a North Korean missile.
North Korea is also pushing for its first military surveillance satellite. Earlier this month it said it used two old rockets as launch vehicles to test a camera and other systems needed for a spy satellite and later released low-resolution satellite photos showing South Korean cities.
Some South Korean experts said the North Korean satellite imagery is too crude for military intelligence purposes and that the North Korean missile launches are likely a disguised test of missile technology. Enraged by such an assessment, Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un, has launched rude insults at unidentified South Korean experts. She also dismissed doubts about North Korea’s ICBM technology and threatened to conduct a full-scale ICBM test.
North Korea is hosting a major ruling party meeting in Pyongyang this week to review past policies and policy goals for 2023. It is highly unusual for North Korea to test-launch a missile when holding an important meeting.
Indicating that the Labor Party’s plenary session was wrapped up, northern state media reported Saturday that its powerful Politburo had decided to finalize the draft plenary session resolution.
Some observers said North Korea is likely to release details of Sunday’s meeting, which would include Kim Jong Un’s vows to expand its nuclear arsenal and introduce sophisticated weapons in the name of dealing with what he calls US hostility.
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Associated Press writer Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo contributed to this report.