North Korea fires two new missiles, blaming Seoul and Washington
A television screen in Seoul, South Korea, showing a streaming news station showing one of the two missiles launched by North Korea, October 6, 2022. LEE JIN-MAN/AP
North Korea launched two new ballistic missiles on Thursday (October 6), calling the weapons tests “pure retaliation” against Washington and Seoul and their military exercises in the region. According to the South Korean army, these short-range missiles were fired from near Pyongyang toward the Sea of Japan on Thursday morning. The Japanese Coast Guard confirmed having detected these projectiles. This sixth launch in less than two weeks was “absolutely unacceptable,” said Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida immediately.
The fresh firing came as the UN Security Council met in New York to discuss the launch of another North Korean missile that flew over Japan two days earlier. On Tuesday, a Hwasong-12 missile flew over Japan, traveling about 4,600 km, likely the longest distance Pyongyang has ever traveled in its tests, according to Seoul and Washington. It was the first time a North Korean projectile had crossed Japanese territory in five years.
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North Korea, which in September adopted a new doctrine that made its status as a nuclear power “irreversible,” increased its fire this year, launching an ICBM for the first time since 2017. The army’s just retaliatory actions against the joint military maneuvers between South Korea and the United States leading to an escalation of military tensions on the Korean peninsula,” the North Korean ministry said in a statement on Thursday. After Tuesday’s launch, Washington called for an emergency United Nations Security Council meeting. But China, an ally and economic partner of North Korea, also blamed the United States.
Beijing versus Washington
Pyongyang’s missile tests are “closely linked” to military exercises between the US and South Korea, Chinese deputy ambassador to the United Nations Geng Shuang told the council. He accused Washington of “poisoning the regional security environment.”
Seoul, Tokyo and Washington have intensified joint military maneuvers in recent weeks, including anti-submarine drills and large-scale naval maneuvers. South Korea and the US on Wednesday fired five ballistic missiles, one of which crashed after launch, at notional targets in the Sea of Japan. And the day before, the air forces of the two countries had conducted target practice in the Yellow Sea.
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Seoul also announced the return to the region of the American nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, which had been conducting drills with the South Korean Navy in September. The Security Council meeting was supported by France, the United Kingdom, Albania, Norway and Ireland.
“We are definitely in a cycle of armed provocation”
US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield denounced “a clear effort by China and Russia to reward them [la Corée du Nord] for his bad deeds” and called for tougher sanctions against Pyongyang.
A missile interceptor stationed near Japan’s Ministry of Defense to warn of a North Korean launch in Tokyo. October 5, 2022. KAZUHIRO NOGI / AFP
In May, Beijing and Moscow vetoed a Security Council resolution imposing new sanctions on North Korea after the body unanimously passed severe sanctions in 2017. Analysts say North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s regime is jumping on the opportunity to end the blockade at the United Nations and is pushing ahead with its weapons tests.
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Seoul and Washington expect North Korea to resume its nuclear tests, which it has suspended since 2017, likely after the Chinese Communist Party Congress, which begins Oct. 16.
“At this point, it seems counterproductive to Kim’s interests to back down and stop the provocations. Not to mention the amount of resources wasted in conducting these weapons tests,” Soo Kim, an analyst at RAND Corporation, told Agence France-Presse. “We are definitely in a cycle of armed provocation,” she said.
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