North Korea has fired two more ballistic missiles at the sea, says the army of neighboring South Korea. The launch on Monday (local time) comes two days after North Korea launched its first ballistic missile of 2023 towards the Sea of Japan.
North Korea itself has announced through its KCNA news agency that it has indeed fired two projectiles, at targets 395 kilometers and 337 kilometers away.
Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, also warned on Monday that the Pacific could more often function as a ‘shooting range’ if North Korea believes that the country’s security is in danger. Tensions in the region are further heightened by that remark.
On Friday, North Korea threatened an “unprecedentedly harsh response” after it was announced that South Korea and the United States will hold new military exercises next week. These are intended to better respond to the growing nuclear threat posed by North Korea. The US and South Korea agreed last year to hold such exercises annually. That will now happen for the first time. North Korea sees the military exercises as “preparation for war”.
Kim Yo-jong said Monday that the North Korean government is “well aware” of the relocation of US troops around the Korean peninsula and is “carefully studying the impact it may have on the security of our state.” She warned that North Korea will take “corresponding countermeasures” if it believes there is “a direct or indirect threat.”
Last year, North Korea fired a record number of missiles as a threat. According to the South Korean news agency Yonhap, there will be more than seventy units in 2022.
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