North Korea launches a missile before VP Harris’s visit

• South Korea’s military says it was a single short-range ballistic missile fired from near the Taechon area of North Pyongyan Province.
• The missile flew about 600 km (373 miles) at an altitude of 60 km and a speed of Mach 5.
• South Korea’s National Security Council held an emergency meeting to discuss how to respond.

North Korea fired a ballistic missile into the sea off its east coast on Sunday. This was done before South Korean and U.S. forces were to do military drills with an aircraft carrier and before U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris was to visit the area.

South Korea’s military said it was a single short-range ballistic missile fired from near the Taechon area of North Pyongyan Province just before 7 a.m. local time. The missile flew about 600 km (373 miles) at an altitude of 60 km and a speed of Mach 5.

“North Korea’s launch of a ballistic missile is an act of grave provocation that threatens the peace and security of the Korean peninsula and international community,” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

After the launch, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Kim Seung-kyum and Commander of the U.S. Forces in Korea Paul LaCamera talked about the situation and said they were ready to respond to any threat or provocation from North Korea.

South Korea’s National Security Council held an emergency meeting to talk about how to respond. The launch was seen as a violation of U.N. Security Council Resolutions and an act of provocation that couldn’t be explained.

The South Korean president, Yoon Suk-yeol, was told about the launch when he got back to Seoul late Saturday from a trip to Britain, the U.S., and Canada, the presidential office said.

Yasukazu Hamada, Japan’s Defense Minister, said that Japan thought the missile went as high as 50 km and may have flown in a strange way. Hamada said that it was outside of Japan’s exclusive economic zone, and there had been no reports of problems with shipping or air travel.

Experts say that many of the short-range missiles North Korea has tested in the past few years were made to get past missile defences by changing direction in flight and flying on a lower, or “depressed,” trajectory.

Hamada said, “If you count launches of cruise missiles, this is the nineteenth launch, which is a record.”

“North Korea’s action is a threat to the peace and security of our country, the region, and the rest of the world,” he said. “To do this as the invasion of Ukraine is happening is unforgivable.” He also said that Japan had sent a protest to North Korea through its embassy in Beijing.

In a statement released after the launch, the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said it knew about the launch and was in close contact with allies. It also reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to the defence of South Korea and Japan.

“We have determined that this event does not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel or territory or to our allies. However, the missile launch shows how the DPRK’s illegal WMD and ballistic missile programmes are causing instability.”

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