North Korea fired an intermediate-range ballistic missile on Tuesday, the South Korean military said, the latest launch in a series of banned weapons tests conducted by Pyongyang this year. Seoul's military
"detected around 6:53 a.m. (9:53 p.m. GMT) what is believed to be an intermediate-range ballistic missile fired from the Pyongyang area toward the East Sea
," the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff said. Korean (JCS), referring to the body of water also known as the Sea of Japan.
“We have strengthened surveillance and closely share relevant information with the United States and Japan
,” the JCS added.
This is the third ballistic missile test since the start of the year, following those of a solid-fuel missile supervised by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in March and another with a hypersonic warhead. maneuverable in January. Tokyo confirmed the missile launch and the coast guard asked ships to be vigilant and report any objects that fell without approaching them.
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Japanese public broadcaster NHK, citing unnamed government sources, said the missile
"appears to have fallen in waters outside Japan's exclusive economic zone
. "
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters on Tuesday that the North had
"launched ballistic missiles several times"
this year, adding that it was a threat to regional security and that it was
“absolutely unacceptable”
.
Sensitive context
Tuesday's firing comes less than two weeks after Pyongyang state media reported that Kim Jong Un had overseen a successful test of a solid-fuel engine for a
"new type of intermediate-range hypersonic missile
. "
It also comes just days after a Russian veto at the United Nations led to the dissolution of the UN sanctions monitoring system against North Korea and its nuclear program, amid an investigation into transfers of alleged weapons between Moscow and Pyongyang.
In just over a week, South Korea will also hold its legislative elections, during which President Yoon Suk Yeol's party, which takes a hard line against Pyongyang, seeks to regain control of the Parliament. Pyongyang has been subject to a series of sanctions since its second nuclear test in 2009, but has nonetheless relentlessly continued to develop its nuclear and weapons programs.
Since the start of the year, North Korea has designated Seoul as its
"main enemy"
, closed agencies dedicated to reunification and inter-Korean dialogue and threatened to go to war for any violation of its territory
"even if- what 0.001 millimeter
.
Alliance game
In March, the United States and South Korea held one of their major annual joint military exercises, drawing the ire of Pyongyang, which systematically condemns these exercises as rehearsals for an invasion of its territory. Seoul is a key ally of Washington in the region. The United States is stationing some 27,000 American troops in South Korea to help protect itself against the nuclear-armed North.
For its part, Pyongyang has recently strengthened its ties with Russia, its traditional ally. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un held a summit in the Russian Far East in September, during which Kim said ties with Moscow were
his country's
"number one priority."
The United States later claimed that Pyongyang had begun supplying weapons to Moscow.
South Korea, for its part, declared in early March that North Korea had shipped around 7,000 containers of weapons to Russia for its war against Ukraine since the transfers began in July.