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Recording of North Korean missile test (archive image)
Photo: Anthony Wallace / AFP
North Korea has been conducting an unusually large number of missile tests since the beginning of the year.
And this week, too, there have been multiple launches in the isolated country – just hours after US President Joe Biden left Asia.
North Korea fired three ballistic missiles from Sunan, north of the capital Pyongyang, South Korea's chiefs of staff said on Wednesday.
The Japanese Coast Guard also reported at least two launches.
The rockets apparently landed outside of Japan's exclusive economic zone, the Japanese broadcaster NHK reported.
The tests came just hours after Biden left Japan following his first trip to Asia as president.
The United States had warned that North Korea appeared ready to conduct a weapons test during Biden's visit.
With the tests, North Korea violates UN resolutions.
Biden and his South Korean counterpart Yoon Suk Yeol agreed over the weekend to step up measures to deter the nuclear-armed state.
Both countries plan to expand their joint military maneuvers.
This is intended to counteract the threat posed by North Korea.
Pyongyang is not responding to offers from the West
The scope and scope of the maneuvers are to be expanded, and more is to be invested in military training and further education
At the same time, they offered North Korea help to contain the first confirmed virus outbreak.
Since the first confirmed corona cases in North Korea on May 12, there has been growing concern about the lack of vaccines, inadequate medical care and a possible food crisis in the country of 25 million people.
North Korea had long insisted that it had not found any corona cases.
Since this month, however, there has been a significant wave of outbreaks, the full extent of which cannot yet be assessed due to a lack of test capacities.
The government in Pyongyang has so far not responded to offers of help from South Korea and the USA.
jok/Reuters
