North Korea has launched another ballistic missile towards the sea hours after US flew long-range bombers in the Korean Peninsula during annual military drills with South Korea, in a show of strength against Pyongyang. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said that the launch occurred on Wednesday, but has so far given no further details.
The US reportedly flew a B-1B bomber to the Korean Peninsula as part of field exercises with South Korea. The field training has been held on the sidelines of an ongoing annual US-South Korean computer-simulated command post exercise called “Ulchi Freedom Shield.”
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff further said that South Korea's military boosted its surveillance posture and maintained its readiness in close coordination with the United States. The missile launch was also confirmed by Japan's Defence Ministry.
On Tuesday, South Korea, the US and Japan mobilised naval destroyers for a trilateral missile defence exercise off South Korea's southern Jeju island, at the same time when Kim Jong Un called for the military to be constantly ready for combat to thwart plans by its rivals to invade.
Last week, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un observed the test-firing of strategic cruise missiles, while South Korean militaries kicked off major annual drills that the North views as an invasion rehearsal, amid increasingly strained ties between Pyongyang and US.
The North's report on missile tests came three days after the leaders of the US, South Korea and Japan held their first stand-alone trilateral summit and agreed to increase their cooperation on their ballistic missile defences to counter North Korea's evolving nuclear and missile threats.
North Korea preparing for war
Kim said he would bolster efforts to build powerful warships and modernize shipboard and underwater weapons systems for the North's navy. He called for the country's sailors to build “overwhelming ideological and spiritual strength,” saying that is more important than the numerical or technical superiority of weapons, according to KCNA.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement North Korea's report on its cruise missile tests contained “an exaggeration” and was "not consistent with the facts. It said South Korea's military will maintain firm readiness based on its capacity to overwhelmingly defeat potential North Korean provocations.
According to a report, Kim has called for building more modern missile launch trucks and said there is an urgent need to boost production of large-caliber multiple rocket launcher shells “at an exponential rate" in their preparatioons against war. He said that North Korea must have “an overwhelming military force and get fully prepared for coping with any war” with the power to “surely annihilate” its enemies.
Tension between US-North Korea soars
North Korea was widely expected to resume weapons tests in reaction to the US-South Korean military training that began Monday for an 11-day run. The US and South Korean militaries said they also plan to conduct large-scale field exercises.
North Korea in past years has slammed major US-South Korea drills as practice for an invasion and has responded to them with missile tests. US and South Korean officials maintain the exercises are defensive in nature and they have no intention of attacking the North.
Kim has been focusing on enlarging his nuclear and missile arsenals since his high-stakes diplomacy with then-US President Donald Trump collapsed in 2019. Since the start of 2022, Kim's military has conducted more than 100 missile tests, many of them in the name of warning the US and South Korean over their expansion of joint military training exercises.
Meanwhile, the US, South Korea and Japan agreed to a new security pledge this month, under which the three nations have agreed to "share fundamentally interlinked security environments" and consult each other in case a security crisis or threat emerges in the Pacific region,
(with AP inputs)
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