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SEOUL: North Korea fired two projectiles into the sea early Thursday (March 25), the South Korean military said, in what could be its first ballistic missile test during the administration of US President Joe Biden.
The nuclear-armed North has a long history of using weapons tests as provocations, in a carefully calibrated process to further its objectives.
After a tumultuous relationship between leader Kim Jong Un and former US President Donald Trump, Pyongyang had been biding its time since the new administration took office, without even officially acknowledging its existence until last week.
Seoul’s joint chiefs of staff said in a statement that the “unidentified projectiles” were launched into the Sea of Japan, known as the East Sea in Korea, from South Hamgyong province.
No further information was immediately available on the type of device, but they added that the military had “strengthened its monitoring posture in close coordination with the United States.”
The presidential Blue House of the South said it would hold a meeting of the national security council.
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Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said two ballistic missiles were involved.
“It has been a year since they last launched a missile,” he told reporters. “This threatens the peace and security of our country and the region. It is also a violation of the UN resolution.”
The Japanese government said the missiles flew about 450 kilometers and landed outside the Japanese exclusive economic zone.
Japan will host its delayed and pandemic-affected Olympics in less than four months.
Suga said he would ensure a safe and secure Olympics and “thoroughly discuss” North Korea’s problems, including pitches with Biden, during his visit to Washington next month.
US officials confirmed that North Korea carried out a new projectile launch, without offering details on the number or type of projectile detected.
The North is prohibited from developing ballistic missiles under United Nations Security Council resolutions and is subject to multiple international sanctions for its weapons programs.
But it has made rapid progress in its capabilities with Kim, testing missiles capable of reaching the entire continental United States as tensions escalated in 2017.
“LUNATIC THEORY”
Thursday’s launch comes after Pyongyang fired two short-range non-ballistic missiles westward toward China over the weekend.
READ: North Korea tested missiles in first challenge to Biden administration – US official.
US officials downplayed that as a violation of UN resolutions, and Biden told reporters: “According to the Department of Defense, everything remains the same.”
It followed joint exercises by the US and South Korean armies and a visit to the region by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to discuss alliance and security issues.
During his trip to Seoul and Tokyo, Blinken repeatedly stressed the importance of denuclearizing Pyongyang.
That led North Korea’s First Deputy Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui to accuse the United States of a “lunatic theory of the ‘North Korean threat’ and unfounded rhetoric about ‘complete denuclearization.
READ: North Korea Ignores US Offer for Talks, Citing Hostile Policy
Washington is reviewing its approach to the North after a tumultuous relationship between former President Trump and leader Kim, which went from exchanging insults and war threats to several diplomatic meetings, but without substantial progress toward denuclearization.
Trump held two headline-grabbing summits with Kim, in Singapore and Vietnam, and the United States withdrew some joint training activities with the South Korean military, while North Korea froze ICBM testing.
But their February 2019 meeting in Hanoi broke down over sanctions relief and what the North would be willing to give up in return.
Communications later ran out, despite a third encounter in the Demilitarized Zone that divides the Korean peninsula.
The two-month-old Biden administration hopes to restart negotiations on North Korea’s nuclear arsenal, but officials say there has been no response to its initial scope.
US officials are now finalizing a strategy to restart talks that the White House will discuss with Japanese and South Korean security officials next week, an administration official said.
