South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missiles were fired in succession over 35 minutes from the Sunan area near the capital, Pyongyang. It didn’t immediately say how far the missiles flew but noted the South Korean military has heightened its monitoring in case the North fires more missiles.
The launch came a day after the US aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan concluded a three-day naval drill with South Korea in the Philippine Sea, apparently their first joint drill involving a carrier since November 2017, as the countries move to upgrade their defense exercises in the face of growing North Korean threats.
The launch was 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 — as it continues to exploit a favorable environment to push forward weapons development with the U.N. Security Council divided over Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Experts say North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s brinkmanship is aimed at forcing the United States to accept the idea of the North as a nuclear power and negotiating economic and security concessions from a position of strength. READ MORE
