North Korea fires unspecified ballistic missile, Seoul says
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea fired at least one unspecified ballistic missile Saturday, South Korea's military said, Pyongyang's first test since the start of the year that comes days before Seoul and Washington are due to start joint tabletop exercises.
"North Korea fires an unidentified ballistic missile into (the) East Sea," South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said, referring to the body of water also known as the Sea of Japan.
Tokyo also confirmed the launch, with the defence ministry saying that Pyongyang had launched a "possible ballistic missile," without giving further details.
Military tensions have risen on the Korean peninsula after a year in which North Korea declared itself an "irreversible" nuclear state, and carried out sanctions-busting weapons tests nearly every month.
In response, Seoul has ramped up joint military drills with key security ally Washington, in a bid to convince the increasingly nervous South Korean public of America's commitment to deter Pyongyang.
The Saturday launch -- Pyongyang's first since January 1 -- came days before Seoul and Washington are due to kick off a new tabletop exercise in Washington, in which the two allies will discuss how they would respond to the use of nuclear weapons by Pyongyang.
The exercise next week will focus on "joint planning, joint management and joint response with Washington's nuclear assets" in case of a nuclear attack by Pyongyang, a South Korean defence ministry official told AFP on Friday.
Pyongyang on Friday threatened an "unprecedentedly" strong response to upcoming US-South Korea drills, describing them as preparations for war.
If Washington and Seoul go ahead with the drills, "they will face unprecedentedly persistent and strong counteractions", a spokesperson for the North Korean foreign ministry said Friday.
South Korea's hawkish President Yoon Suk Yeol, who took office in May 2022, has vowed to get tough on the North, and had moved to quickly ramp up joint drills, which had been scaled back during the Covid pandemic.
They were also paused for a bout of ill-fated diplomacy with Pyongyang under his predecessor.
No talks, more missiles
South Korea also called the nuclear-armed North its "enemy" in a defence document earlier this week, the first time in six years it has used the term, signalling a further hardening of Seoul's position toward Pyongyang.
North Korea's missile tests last year also included one that landed near South Korea's territorial waters for the first time since the end of the Korean War in 1953.
In December, it sent five drones across the border into Seoul's airspace, including skies near its presidential office.
Pyongyang has repeatedly said it is not interested in further talks, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un recently called for an "exponential" increase in his country's nuclear arsenal.
At a military parade in Pyongyang last week, North Korea showed off a record number of nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missiles, including what analysts said was possibly a new solid-fuelled ICBM.
The weapons on show included at least 10 of the North's largest Hwasong-17 ICBMs, as well as vehicles apparently designed to carry a solid-fuelled ICBM.
North Korea has long sought to develop a solid-fuel ICBM because such missiles are easier to store and transport, are more stable and quicker to prepare for launch, and thus harder for the United States to detect and destroy pre-emptively.
South Korean officials were briefing the White House Thursday on the outcome of their pathfinding meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Seoul has already publicized that North Korea offered talks with the United States on denuclearization and normalizing ties, a potential diplomatic opening after a year of escalating tensions over the North's nuclear and missile tests. The rival Koreas also agreed to hold a leadership summit in late April.
Top Trump administration officials were getting a chance to hear firsthand from South Korean national security director, Chung Eui-yong, who led the delegation that went to Pyongyang. — Associated Press
South Korea's defense ministry says Thursday it was "closely monitoring" a North Korean nuclear reactor site after local media reported its operations had been temporarily suspended, potentially to extract weapons-grade plutonium.
The Donga Ilbo newspaper reports earlier in the day that intelligence sources in Seoul and Washington had detected signs the five-megawatt reactor in Yongbyon had temporarily stopped operations late last month.
The suspension could be an indication that spent fuel rods are being reprocessed to extract plutonium for use in nuclear weapons, the report cited a government source as saying. — AFP
State media reports that North Korea's rubber-stamp legislature has enshrined the country's status as a nuclear weapons power in the constitution.
"The DPRK's nuclear force-building policy has been made permanent as the basic law of the state, which no one is allowed to flout with anything," leader Kim Jong Un said at a meeting of the State People's Assembly that was held Tuesday and Wednesday, the KCNA news agency says.
DPRK is the acronym for the country's formal name. — AFP
State news agency KCNA reports that North Korea announced it had built a "tactical nuclear attack submarine" as part of its effort to strengthen its naval force.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un presided over the unveiling ceremony on Wednesday, saying the new sub was part of a "push forward with the nuclear weaponization of the Navy in the future", according to KCNA.
The launching of submarine No. 841, named the Hero Kim Kun Ok, "heralded the beginning of a new chapter for bolstering up the naval force of the DPRK", the KCNA report said, referring to the country by the abbreviation of its formal name. — AFP
State-controlled media reports Sunday that North Korea staged a "simulated tactical nuclear attack" drill at the weekend with mock atomic warheads attached to two long-range cruise missiles that were test-fired into the ocean.
The Korean Central News Agency says the operation early Saturday was a "counteraction drill" in response to joint military activity by US and South Korean forces that KCNA said has escalated tensions in the region.
"A firing drill for simulated tactical nuclear attack was conducted at dawn of September 2 to warn the enemies of the actual nuclear war danger," KCNA reports. — AFP
Seoul's military says North Korea fired multiple cruise missiles off its west coast on Saturday, the latest in a string of recent Pyongyang military actions.
The launches come three days after the North launched a pair of short-range ballistic missiles as part of a "tactical nuclear strike drill" prompted by the annual US-South Korean Ulchi Freedom Shield military exercises, which always infuriate the reclusive regime.
Pyongyang views such the drills as a rehearsal for invasion while the two allies say they are defensive in nature. — AFP
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