North Korea fires two missiles and warns Washington and Seoul

Images on a TV at a North Korean train station show the launch of the missiles.

North Korea said it fired two missiles on Monday capable, it says, of carrying out a “tactical nuclear attack” and destroying enemy airbases, in response to aerial maneuvers conducted the day before by its South Korean neighbor with the United States. United.

This is the second North Korean launch in 48 hours: On Saturday, Pyongyang launched one of its most powerful intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), a few days ahead of joint exercises between Seoul and Washington scheduled for this week.

The launch of this ICBM, which Tokyo said fell in Japan's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), led Washington and Seoul to organize joint aerial maneuvers on Sunday.

The agency North Korean official KCNA confirmed that Monday's exercise was conducted in response to the aerial drills, with Pyongyang blaming the two allies for the deterioration of the security situation on the peninsula.

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F-16 fighter jets and a B-1B bomber fly over the southern peninsula -Korean during a joint exercise between Seoul and Washington.

According to KCNA, North Korea on Monday used super-sized multiple rocket launchers that are powerful enough tactical nuclear weapons to burn enemy airbases to ashes.

This allowed the Korean People's Army [to demonstrate] its full deterrent capability and willingness to counter the joint US-South Korean air drills on Sunday, she said.

Unlike Pyongyang, the United States usually refers to these rockets as short-range ballistic missiles, says the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington-based think tank.

The South Korean military claimed to have detected the firing of two short-range ballistic missiles on Monday between 7 a.m. and 7:11 a.m. local time, which traveled a distance of 390 km for one and 340 km for the other before dropping into the East Sea, also known as the Sea of ​​Japan.

Seoul called the launch a serious provocation that undermines peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and called on Pyongyang to end it immediately.

New sanctions were also imposed. taken by South Korean diplomacy regarding four individuals and five entities linked to Pyongyang's weapons programs.

Our government has made it clear that North Korea's provocations will inevitably have a price, she said in a statement.

The United Nations Security Council will meet urgently on Tuesday in New York on the Korean Peninsula.

In a statement released Monday morning, the North Korean leader's sister, Kim Yo-jong warned that Pyongyang would continue to monitor moves by Washington and Seoul to deploy more US strategic assets in the region, promising corresponding countermeasures to each perceived threat.

The frequency of using the Pacific as a firing range depends on the type of action of US forces, she stressed in a statement released by KCNA.

Pyongyang had claimed its Saturday ICBM launch was a surprise exercise which it said demonstrated its deadly nuclear counterattack capabilities.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un observes the launch of a missile. (File photo)

Such statements are intended to testify not only to the development of strategic and tactical nuclear forces, but also to the operational capacity to mobilize them in the face of a certain international skepticism vis-à-vis North Korean military technologies, observes Leif-Eric Easley of Ewha University in Seoul.

Saturday's shooting was strongly condemned by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, his spokesman said on Sunday, urging Pyongyang to stop its provocative actions.

North Korea praised its soldiers for carrying out the sudden-fire exercise on Saturday, but South Korean experts have pointed out that the nine-hour delay between the order and the launch was not particularly fast.

Kim Yo-jong dismissed these criticisms, describing them as an attempt to underestimate the readiness of Pyongyang's ballistic forces.

Kim's angry and angry reaction to the external evaluation of the launch of its ICBM shows that the North is serious about sending the message that it is capable of striking the American continent, estimated with AFP Hong Min, of the & #x27;Korean Institute for National Unification, based in Seoul.

The use of shorter-range missiles indicates that North Korea is virtually targeting U.S. bases and the South Korean command center in the region, Hong added.

Last week, Pyongyang warned that it would respond with unprecedented vigor to upcoming exercises, which he describes as preparations for war.

Relations between Pyongyang and Seoul have been at their lowest for several years. In 2022, the North called its status as a nuclear power irreversible, and Kim Jong-un called for exponential growth in the production of armaments, including tactical nuclear weapons.