After a month-long break. North Korea fired a ballistic missile on Sunday, February 27, the eighth this year, after a month of lull during the Beijing Olympics and at a time when international attention is focused on Ukraine.
The South Korean military “detected a ballistic missile launched in the direction of the East Sea” – the Sea of Japan, the South Korean military said in a statement. The projectile, launched around 11 p.m. on Saturday from Sunan, near Pyongyang, traveled about 300 km at a maximum altitude of 620 km, she added.
The South Korean presidency expressed its “deep concern” over the launch, which comes “at a time when the world is striving to stop the war in Ukraine”.
In January, North Korea had fired seven, a record number in a month, including that of its most powerful missile since 2017, while negotiations with the United States are at a standstill. The regime has also warned that it may drop its self-imposed moratorium on intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and nuclear testing.
“He restarts the machine”
North Korea had refrained from any weapons testing during the Winter Olympics in Beijing, perhaps out of respect for its neighbor and ally China. However, with the international community’s attention focused on the war in Ukraine, many analysts expected Pyongyang to take the opportunity to resume firing.
“They are restarting the machine,” Shin Beom-chul, a researcher at the Research Institute for Economy and Society, told AFP. “They refrained from any provocation during the Beijing Games to spare their relations with China. But while the interest of the United States turned to Europe with the crisis in Ukraine and the Security Council proved unable to function, Pyongyang seized the opportunity, “said this analyst.
The day before, North Korea had held the United States responsible for the war in Ukraine, in its first official reaction after the Russian invasion.