The Korean peninsula and the seas and territories that surround it have returned to dawn this Thursday with the shock of a salvo of test missiles launched by the communist regime in Pyongyang.
The day before, North Korea conducted tests firing at least 23 projectiles of different ranges fired in various directions.
One of them fell near the territorial waters of South Korea after crossing the
de facto
maritime border between the two countries and forced the activation of anti-aircraft alerts on a South Korean island.
And this Thursday, the northern neighbor has launched at least three other rockets, triggering alarms in some areas of central and northern Japan.
One of the launches could be an intercontinental ballistic missile, according to Japanese and South Korean agencies, with the ability to transport nuclear warheads long distances around the globe before impact.
His shot recorded at around 7:40 a.m. (local time) has alerted Tokyo, which has sent a refugee alert to residents of Miyagi, Yamagata and Niigata prefectures.
The missile has flown about 750 kilometers and has reached a height of nearly 2,000 kilometers - the exosphere - and a maximum speed of
Mach 15
(around 18,000 kilometers per hour) before falling into the Sea of Japan, possibly due to a launch failure, according to South Korean military commanders.
The Japanese Defense Minister, Hamada Yasukazu, explained that warning that the projectile could fly over Japan, a warning was issued through the J-ALERT national emergency system, but this information was later corrected, confirming the disappearance. of the radar missile somewhere in the Sea of Japan.
The General Staff of the South Korean armed forces has assured that the other two detected are short-range ballistic missiles that have flown about 330 kilometers at a maximum height of 70 kilometers.
Hamada Yasukazu speaks to reporters at the Ministry of Defense in Tokyo on Thursday. Takaki Yajima (AP)
“North Korea has carried out repeated ballistic missile launches in recent days.
This is outrageous and should never be tolerated," said Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
"I have already instructed the relevant agencies to check if there was any damage, provide the proper information to the public and analyze all that information," he added.
Senior officials from the governments of Japan, the United States and South Korea also held telephone conversations this Thursday to discuss
North Korea's ballistic
crescendo
in 2022: the regime commanded with an iron fist by Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un round and to 30 test launches this year, well above the records of previous years.
Among the tests, the launch in March of the largest intercontinental projectile in its arsenal, known as
The Monster,
―although this test is considered a failure by the United States and South Korea―, and the firing of another missile a month ago long-range aircraft that flew over Japan and forced some of its citizens to take refuge.
One of the shots fired on Wednesday broke a new taboo by flying over the de facto
maritime border
between North and South Korea for the first time since the Korean War ended in 1953. South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol called it an "effective act of territorial intrusion."
Various analysts also believe that Pyongyang could be preparing a new nuclear test, more than five years after the last atomic test.
On Tuesday, shortly before the start of the round of fire that has clouded the atmosphere in the region, Pyongyang called on the United States and neighboring South Korea to stop carrying out joint military exercises involving more than 240 aircraft, something which Pyongyang considers a "military provocation".
"A serious situation is being created on the Korean peninsula due to excessive military confrontation by hostile forces," Pak Jong-chon, secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of North Korea, said in a statement picked up by the country's official agency, KCNA.
"It is an aggressive and provocative military exercise aimed thoroughly at the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, in view of the number of fighters involved in it and its scale," he added.
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