North Korea launch­es bal­lis­tic mis­sile toward Sea of Japan

North Korea launches ballistic missile toward Sea of Japan

North Korea launched a long-range bal­lis­tic mis­sile on Wednes­day in the direc­tion of the Sea of Japan, adding to the recent increased geopo­lit­i­cal ten­sions in the area.

The mis­sile launch comes after the com­mu­nist coun­try on the Kore­an penin­su­la has increased its mil­i­tary activ­i­ty in recent days. First, reports sur­faced that North Kore­an troops entered Rus­sia and were prepar­ing to aid the coun­try in its war with Ukraine. Then, there were reports that sev­er­al thou­sand North Kore­an troops were dis­patched to the Kursk region of Rus­sia along the Rus­sia-Ukraine bor­der that is cur­rent­ly occu­pied by Ukrain­ian forces. 

Then, on Tues­day, South Kore­an offi­cials relayed that North Korea’s supreme leader, Kim Jong Un, was mak­ing prepa­ra­tions to launch an inter­con­ti­nen­tal bal­lis­tic mis­sile, accord­ing to mul­ti­ple reports. On Wednes­day, there was con­fir­ma­tion that the Demo­c­ra­t­ic People’s Repub­lic of Korea offi­cial­ly launched the ICBM toward Japan. The ICBM was report­ed­ly launched at 7:10 a.m. from Pyongyang and trav­eled in the air for 87 min­utes – a record time for any mis­sile launched by the DPRK. 

“It is believed the North Kore­an bal­lis­tic mis­sile is a long-range bal­lis­tic mis­sile fired at a high angle,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff report­ed in a released state­ment.

There was no dam­age or casu­al­ties from the launch. 

How­ev­er, the DPRK may not be fin­ished with its mis­sile tests. Intel­li­gence offi­cials from South Korea claimed that North Korea could con­duct anoth­er ICBM launch next Tues­day, the day of the Unit­ed States pres­i­den­tial elec­tion. 

The Unit­ed States and the Nation­al Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil con­demned the mis­sile test with a state­ment on Wednes­day.

“The Unit­ed States strong­ly con­demns the Demo­c­ra­t­ic People’s Repub­lic of Korea’s (DPRK) inter­con­ti­nen­tal bal­lis­tic mis­sile test, said NSC spokesman Sean Savett. “This launch is a fla­grant vio­la­tion of mul­ti­ple U.N. Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil res­o­lu­tions. While U.S. INDOPACOM has assessed it did not pose an imme­di­ate threat to U.S. per­son­nel, or ter­ri­to­ry, or to our allies, this launch need­less­ly rais­es ten­sions and risks desta­bi­liz­ing the secu­ri­ty sit­u­a­tion in the region.”

“It only demon­strates that the DPRK con­tin­ues to pri­or­i­tize its unlaw­ful weapons of mass destruc­tion and bal­lis­tic mis­sile pro­grams over the well-being of its peo­ple,” Savett added. “We urge all coun­tries to con­demn these vio­la­tions and call on the DPRK to cease its desta­bi­liz­ing actions and engage in seri­ous dia­logue. The nation­al secu­ri­ty team is close­ly coor­di­nat­ing with our allies and part­ners. The Unit­ed States will take all nec­es­sary mea­sures to ensure the secu­ri­ty of the Amer­i­can home­land and Repub­lic of Korea and Japan­ese allies.”