SEOUL, June 6 (BNA) The US and South Korean militaries fired eight ballistic missiles into the sea on Monday in a show of force identical to that of a North Korean missile the day before, widening a provocative wave of arms demonstrations.
The Allies’ live-fire exercises featured eight Tactical Army missiles — one American and seven South Korean — that were fired into South Korea’s eastern waters within 10 minutes following air and naval safety notices, according to the joint chiefs of staff of South Korea and U.S. Forces Korea, The Associated Press reports.
The South Korean military said the missile launches were intended to demonstrate the ability to respond quickly and accurately to North Korean attacks.
The South’s military on Sunday detected that North Korea fired eight short-range missiles at a range of 35 minutes from at least four different locations, including from the western and eastern coastal regions and two inland regions north and near the capital, Pyongyang, in what appeared to be a one-day record of ballistic launches in country.
This was the 18th round of missile tests conducted by North Korea in 2022 alone — a series that included the country’s first intercontinental ballistic missile launches in nearly five years. South Korean and US officials also say North Korea is preparing to conduct its first nuclear test since September 2017, as leader Kim Jong Un pushes a brinkmanship policy aimed at establishing North Korea as a nuclear power and negotiating economic and security concessions from a position of strength.
US and South Korean forces conducted similar live-fire exercises following North Korea’s previous ballistic launches on May 25, which the South Korean military said included an ICBM launched on a medium-range trajectory, as well as two short-range weapons. Those tests came as Biden wrapped up his trip to South Korea and Japan, where he reaffirmed the United States’ commitment to defending both allies.
South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol said during a speech marking the country’s Memorial Day on Monday that his government will seek “basic and operational security capabilities” to counter North Korea’s growing nuclear and missile threat.
“North Korea’s nuclear and missile weapons programs have grown to the point that they not only pose a threat to the Korean Peninsula, but also Northeast Asia and world peace,” Yoon said at the National Cemetery in Seoul, adding that his government would “respond firmly to any kind of North Korean provocations.”
Yoon, a conservative who took office in May, pledged to bolster the defense of the South in conjunction with his alliance with the United States. Its goals include enhancing missile strikes and intercept capabilities and resuming large-scale military exercises with the United States, which have been suspended or downsized in recent years to create space for diplomacy with Pyongyang or due to the coronavirus.
Yun’s dove predecessor Moon Jae-in, who has staked his state for five years on a clash between the two Koreas, refrained from anti-missile exercises after North Korea resumed ballistic missile tests in 2019 as its diplomacy with the United States frayed.
North Korean state media has yet to comment on Sunday’s launches. They came after the US aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan concluded a three-day naval exercise with South Korea in the Philippine Sea on Saturday, apparently the first joint exercises involving an aircraft carrier since November 2017, as nations move to modernize their defense drills in the face of North Korean threats.
North Korea has long decried allied joint military exercises as an exercise in invasion, and has frequently encountered missile exercises of its own, including short-range launches in 2016 and 2017 to simulate nuclear attacks on South Korean ports and US military facilities in Japan.
Japan and the United States conducted joint ballistic missile exercises aimed at demonstrating “quick reaction capability” and “strong determination” to counter threats, the Japanese Defense Ministry said hours after the North Korean missile launches.
The United States has vowed to push for additional international sanctions if North Korea conducts a nuclear test, but the prospects for meaningful new punitive measures look bleak as permanent members of the UN Security Council are divided.
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Russia and China vetoed a US-sponsored resolution that would have imposed additional sanctions on North Korea over its recent ballistic tests on May 25, insisting that Washington focus instead on reviving negotiations with Pyongyang.
Those talks have been bogged down since 2019 by differences over the trade-off of tough US-led sanctions in exchange for the North’s disarmament steps.
Despite facing harsh challenges at home, including a slumping economy and the COVID-19 outbreak, Kim has shown no willingness to fully compromise an arsenal he sees as the strongest guarantee of survival.
Experts say his government has so far rejected the Biden administration’s offers of open talks, and is clearly intent on turning dormant denuclearization negotiations into a mutual arms control process.