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North Korea today launched two short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast. South Korea is denouncing it, while Kim Yo-jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, has warned the Pacific could become a “shooting gallery”. The rockets were fired this morning in the Sukchon area north of Pyongyang toward the Sea of Japan, the Seoul military said. According to the Tokyo Defense Ministry, the missiles fell outside of Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone.
The leader of South Korea’s ruling People Power party, Chung Jin-suk, has warned that Pyongyang’s ongoing provocations will only increase demands on the south to develop its own nuclear deterrent, which would heighten tensions in the peninsula.
Kim Yo-jong warned against increasing the presence of strategic US assets in the Korean peninsula after the United States held joint air exercises with South Korea and then Japan on Sunday. “We are carefully evaluating the impact this would have on the security of our state,” he said. “The frequency of using the Pacific as a firing range depends on the nature of the action by US forces.”
Japan will request the convening of a United Nations Security Council to discuss the Pyongyang missile launch.
Just yesterday, North Korea confirmed it had launched an ICBM on Saturday as a warning to Washington and Seoul.