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North Korea fired more than ten short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea on Thursday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said. All of the launches originated from the Wonsan area in North Korea at 12:30 p.m. local time, and traveled roughly 250 kilometers.
That was 11:30 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday. It is Pyongyang’s 17th ballistic-missile launch of the year and the first such launch in 17 days. The last such salvo of ballistic missiles was launched on October 12 and also went into the East Sea.
A military official told the Korea Herald that the launch involved various types of launchers including 600mm multiple rocket launchers, and that Seoul, Washington and Tokyo were sharing data and conducting analysis on the missiles which the three countries classify as short-range ballistic missiles. The official played down any comparison to a mixed salvo meant to overwhelm missile defenses. None of the missiles landed on land and all went into the sea, the Joint Chiefs said.
The timing sits next to a paper statement, not a battlefield change. On Wednesday, eleven countries and the European Union issued a joint statement calling again for denuclearization, the Korea Herald reported. The joint statement welcomes fresh sanctions on Pyongyang’s overseas labor, its cyber operations, and its military ties with Russia, and calls upon UN member countries to strictly implement resolutions already issued. Kim Jong Un answered the paper with a launch.
This is not an attack on the U.S. Two hundred and fifty kilometers is a regional shot, similar to prior tests of this range that Pyongyang has fired when sanction-related communiques have been issued. This would be another test, another statement, more calls for others to take the next step that would result in more sanctions and other open-ended commitments in Northeast Asia.
The missiles were fired into the water. Washington already knows the range of the missiles that North Korea fired and the types of launchers that were used. What Washington does not have is a new attack on American forces or American territory. The East Sea got the missiles. The communique got the headlines of the day before.
The South Korean military and the US and Japanese militaries were analyzing the launches, the Joint Chiefs said. No North Korean state media confirmation had been issued when the Joint Chiefs put out the detection. There have been 17 launches of ballistic missiles in 10 months. While the distance that the missiles have traveled and the target at which they were aimed has not changed, the launches continue to beat out a drumbeat. And Thursday’s launch of short-range missiles into the East Sea was not stopped by the communique issued the previous day by eleven countries and the European Union.
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