“Suspected Ballistic Missile”
North Korea continues weapons testing
11/09/2022 12:24 p.m
Despite increasing international criticism, North Korea is not giving up on its missile tests. After countless warning shots and artillery barrages, Pyongyang is now firing another missile towards the Sea of Japan. Concerns about a nuclear weapons test are growing in Washington and Seoul.
North Korea has again fired at least one ballistic missile, South Korea said. The South Korean general staff said the missile was launched toward the sea off the east coast of the Korean peninsula, without giving further details. What type exactly it was, remained open at first. The Japanese government confirmed on Twitter that a “suspected ballistic missile” had been launched.
The rocket launch took place against the background of the midterm congressional elections in the USA. Seoul’s espionage agency had previously warned that North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un could choose the date for a long-awaited nuclear test.
Washington and Seoul have been warning for months that North Korea could conduct a nuclear weapons test in the near future. It would be the first such test since 2017. North Korea has conducted six nuclear weapons tests since 2006. North Korea had recently intensified its missile tests in response to joint military exercises by South Korea and the United States. Earlier this month, Pyongyang fired more than 20 rockets. In addition, it has continued to heat up tensions in the region in recent weeks, including with artillery barrages.
South Korea examines debris
According to the South Korean army, one of the missiles crossed the de facto maritime border between North and South Korea in early November. According to the General Staff, it came “closer than ever before” to South Korean territorial waters and landed in the sea just 57 kilometers east of the South Korean mainland.
Seoul said it recovered and examined debris from one of the missiles fired from North Korea, three meters long and two meters wide. According to the analysis, the projectile could also be used as a surface-to-surface missile, the South Korean Ministry of Defense said. “Russia recently used a similar surface-to-air missile as a surface-to-surface missile in the Ukraine war,” it said.
Just the day before, North Korea had denied the US accusation that it had secretly sent artillery ammunition to Russia for the war against Ukraine. US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby last week accused North Korea of supplying a “significant” quantity of ammunition to Russia, claiming that it was being shipped to the Middle East or North Africa.