North Korea Fires Ballistic Missiles after Kamala Harris Left South Korea

Seoul: North Korea terminated two ballistic missiles Thursday, Seoul’s military said, Pyongyang’s third such launch in under a week and just only hours after US Vice President Kamala Harris left South Korea.

The South’s military said it had identified the launch of “two short-range ballistic missiles from the Sunchon region in South Pyongan territory”.

“Our military has reinforced checking and surveillance and is keeping up with most extreme status collaborating with the US,” Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in an explanation. Japan’s coast guard likewise affirmed a reasonable ballistic missile launch from North Korea, referring to data from Tokyo’s defense ministry.

Public telecaster NHK said the shot seems to have fallen outside Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone, referring to anonymous sources from the defense ministry. While in South Korea, Ms. Harris visited the country’s vigorously sustained line with the nuclear-armed North, a part of a trip pointed toward reinforcing the security coalition with Seoul.

Talking at the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), Kamala Harris said the US commitment to South Korea’s guard was ironclad, adding that the allies were adjusted in their reaction to the developing danger presented by the North’s weapons programs.

Washington has around 28,500 soldiers positioned in South Korea to assist with protecting it from the North, and the allies are directing an enormous scope joint naval exercise this week in a demonstration of power.

Pyongyang directed two prohibited ballistic missile launches long before Ms. Harris’ arrival, proceeding with a record-breaking dash of weapons tests this year. The North terminated a short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) on Sunday and two SRBMs on Wednesday, Seoul, and Tokyo said.

Under the South’s hawkish new President Yoon Suk-yeol, Seoul and Washington have helped joint military activities, which they insist are absolutely defensive. North Korea considers them to practice for an attack. Seoul reported Thursday that it would hold three trilateral anti-submarine drills with Japan and the US, the first such activities since 2017.

South Korean authorities said at the end of the week they had identified signs Pyongyang could be getting ready to fire a submarine-launched ballistic missile.