SEOUL: North Korea fired what appeared to be multiple short-range ballistic missiles on Thursday (May 8), South Korea’s military said, around a week after leader Kim Jong Un tested a new weapons system for his latest warship.
Seoul’s military said it had “detected several projectiles presumed to be short-range ballistic missiles”, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.
The missiles were “fired from the Wonsan area of North Korea into the East Sea between approximately 8.10am and 9.20am today,” they added, referring to the body of water also known as the Sea of Japan.
The missiles flew up to about 800km before splashing down in waters to the east of the peninsula, the JCS said, adding it strongly condemned the North for a “clear act of provocation that poses a serious threat to peace and stability”.
“Our military, under the strong South Korea-US combined defence posture, is closely monitoring various North Korean activities to prevent any misjudgment (by the North),” it said in a statement.
The launch, the nuclear-armed North’s first missile test since March, came about a week after Kim oversaw the test-firing of a new warship weapons system.
Pyongyang unveiled the 5,000-ton destroyer-class vessel named Choe Hyon last month.
North Korea claims the vessel was equipped with the “most powerful weapons”, and that it would “enter into operation early next year”.
Some analysts have said the ship could be equipped with short-range tactical nuclear missiles – although North Korea has not proven it has the ability to miniaturise its nukes.
The South Korean military has said the destroyer could have been developed with Russian help, possibly in exchange for Pyongyang deploying thousands of troops to help Moscow fight Kyiv.
Russia and North Korea also recently announced that they had started building the first road bridge linking the two neighbours.
North Korea launched a flurry of ballistic missiles last year in violation of United Nations sanctions.
Experts have long warned that the nuclear-armed North may be testing weapons for export to Russia for use against Ukraine.
The launch also came as Russia prepared to hold World War II Victory Day commemorations, with world leaders including China’s Xi Jinping expected to attend – but not Pyongyang’s Kim.
A three-day truce in the conflict with Ukraine has been ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin to coincide with the celebrations, although Kyiv has never agreed to it and has dismissed it as political theatre.
The Thursday missile launch appears to “serve as a reminder of North Korea’s contribution and stake in Russia’s apparent efforts to commemorate Victory Day as a triumph over Ukraine”, Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, told AFP.
