North Korea conducted its second ballistic missile test in less than a week on Wednesday, South Korean media reports, in what is believed to be a protest against the upcoming military exercises between Seoul and Washington, which Pyongyang sees as a practice for an invasion.
A ballistic missile fired from the North’s eastern coastal Wonsan area around 6 a.m. flew more than 700 kilometres, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
South Korea’s military condemned the test and warned it remains ready to repel any provocation by Pyongyang in cooperation with the United States. South Korea’s national security council called North Korean ballistic missile launches “acts of provocation” and urged the North to halt them immediately.
The Japanese Defense Ministry also reported detecting the launch, saying the weapon landed in waters outside its exclusive economic zone, between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.
Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi told reporters that Japan strongly protested the North Korean launch through their embassies in Beijing. “It’s a serious problem that affects the safety of the Japanese people,” he said.
The launches, within days of each other, were seen as part of North Korea’s extended run of weapons tests as the country has refused to return to talks with the US and South Korea for years.
It also came two days after South Korea and the United States announced they will kick off their annual large-scale military drills on 17 August to beef up readiness against North Korean threats.
North Korea has previously responded to the Ulchi Freedom Shield training and other major South Korea-U.S. military exercises with provocative weapons tests and harsh rhetoric, although experts believe Pyongyang often uses its rivals’ military training as a pretext to boost its own testing activities. The US and South Korea have repeatedly said their training is defensive in nature.
After last year’s Ulchi Freedom Shield training exercises began, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the drills showed the US and South Korea’s “will to ignite a war” and claimed they have grown more provocative than before, which has prompted North Korea to respond with “proactive and overwhelming” countermeasures.
Last week, on 6 August, South Korea, the US, and Japan detected the launch of a short-range ballistic missile from North Korea in what was the North’s first ballistic weapons testing activity since late June.
Pyongyang didn’t confirm the reported launch, though it usually releases details of weapons tests a day later.