Shortly after Biden’s Asia visit
North Korea is reportedly testing ICBMs
05/25/2022, 05:09 am
Pyongyang continues missile testing. US President Biden has just ended his trip to Asia in Japan when three missiles are fired from North Korea into the open sea to the east. Among them is presumably a nuclear-capable ICBM.
North Korea has fired three ballistic missiles, South Korea said. The South Korean military announced that the first of these was a “suspected ICBM.” In response to the North’s “missile provocations,” South Korea and US forces in the country conducted a joint “country-to-country missile exercise” using live ammunition. The incident happened at the end of US President Joe Biden’s trip to Asia, who had stopped in South Korea at the weekend.
According to South Korea, the first rocket had a “range of about 360 kilometers and an altitude of about 540 kilometers”. As the military further explained, the second missile “disappeared” at an altitude of 20 kilometers. The third missile was therefore a short-range missile that flew about 760 kilometers far and 60 kilometers high.
According to the South Korean general staff, the rockets were fired eastwards into the sea from the “Sunan area” near the capital Pyongyang. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol convened the National Security Council. He described the renewed missile tests as a “serious provocation that endangers peace on the Korean peninsula and the international community”.
The rocket launches came days after US President Joe Biden visited South Korea. He said the United States was “prepared for anything North Korea does.” He had also discussed expanding military exercises with South Korea, which had been scaled back in recent years in view of a policy of détente towards North Korea.
Corona wave rages in North Korea
The United States has been warning for weeks that North Korea could soon conduct a nuclear weapons test for the first time since 2017. The country, which is largely isolated internationally and subject to tough sanctions, has carried out a series of missile tests in recent months. This included the launch of an ICBM.
North Korea is currently being hit by a violent outbreak of the corona virus. According to state media, more than three million people have already contracted “fever”. During a phone call between South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin and his US counterpart Antony Blinken, the two described it as “deeply regrettable” that North Korea “is using its most important financial resources to develop nuclear weapons and missiles instead of taking quarantine measures and the to improve the living conditions of the people”.