North Korea fires two missiles from Pyongyang

North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles (SRBM) from an airport in its capital Pyongyang on Monday, according to the South Korean military.

In less than two weeks, North Korea has carried out three more missile tests, an unusually fast series of launches that once again demonstrates the expansion of its military arsenal despite the severe economic and food crisis it has been going through since. several years.

Two shots were "hypersonic missiles", according to Pyongyang, capable of reaching high speed and maneuvering after launch, while the test on Friday involved two short-range ballistic missiles fired from train carriages. Monday's launch appears to involve two SRBMs fired east from Sunan Airfield in Pyongyang, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a statement. This launch base had already been used in 2017, in the presence of leader Kim Jong Un, to test a Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM). The missiles fired traveled about 380 km to reach a maximum altitude of 42 km, the JCS said in a statement.

Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said the missiles appeared to have landed in the ocean near North Korea's east coast. The frequency and variety of tests show that North Korea is "trying to improve its technology and operational capabilities to carry out covert actions, so that other countries have a hard time detecting the preparatory signs of a launch", said he warned during a press briefing. "North Korea's repeated ballistic missile launches constitute a serious problem for the international community, including Japan," he added, recalling that these launches constitute a violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions. which prohibit North Korea from developing ballistic missiles.

North Korea banned from developing ballistic missiles

"These missile launches underscore the destabilizing impact of (North Korea's) illicit weapons program," the US military's Indo-Pacific command said.

Washington imposed its first new sanctions on Pyongyang on Wednesday and asked the United Nations Security Council to blacklist several North Korean individuals and entities.

She also reiterated her calls for North Korea to resume talks aimed at reducing tensions and persuading it to give up its arsenal of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.

The autocratic regime is defending its sovereign right to self-defense and has accused the United States of intentionally escalating confrontation with new sanctions, seeking "the isolation and suffocation of the country".

North Korea's military has not tested its longer-range intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) or nuclear weapons since 2017, but after denuclearization talks stalled in 2019, it began unveiling and testing a series of new SRBM models.

Many of the latest designs, including hypersonics, seem designed to evade missile defenses.