North fires more missiles ahead of U.S. carrier’s arrival

North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles (SRBM) on Monday, a day before a nuclear-powered U.S. aircraft carrier is scheduled to enter Busan, according to South Korean defense officials.

The launch took place amid an ongoing joint South Korean-U.S. amphibious landing exercise that North Korean propaganda outlets decried as “offensive” in nature.

The two SRBMs were launched at 7:47 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. from Junghwa County, North Hwanghae Province, and flew approximately 370 kilometers (230 miles) before landing in the East Sea off North Hamgyong Province, according to Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).

Based on their analysis of the missiles’ trajectories, South Korean defense officials believe the two SRBMs were KN-23 ballistic missiles, which resemble Russian Iskander missiles and feature semi-parabolic flight paths to evade anti-missile defenses.

Pyongyang has staged 11 rounds of missile launches this year, while Monday’s SRBMs marked the seventh time in less than a month that the North has fired missiles.

North Korea’s methods of launching missiles in the past year have diversified from transporter erector launcher vehicles to railcar-borne launchers, underground silos and underwater launch platforms hidden in inland reservoirs, underlining the regime’s efforts to evade South Korean and U.S. surveillance and pre-launch detection capabilities.

In a Monday morning statement to reporters, the JCS said, “Our military has strengthened surveillance and vigilance against additional launches while maintaining a full readiness posture through close cooperation between South Korea and the United States.”

The allies on Thursday concluded Freedom Shield, their first large-scale command post exercise in five years, while their ongoing Ssangyong amphibious landing exercise kicked off in Pohang, North Gyeongsang, on March 20 and is due to end on April 3.

Pyongyang’s propaganda outlets over the weekend claimed that the Ssangyong joint exercise is a rehearsal for invading North Korea.

North Korean propaganda website Uriminzokkiri claimed Saturday “that the amphibious landing has an offensive nature rather than being defensive is a fact that anybody knows,” while another propaganda outlet, Meari, blamed “hostile” forces, including the United States, for bringing the situation on the peninsula to a “perilous” point that could spark a war.

The North’s state media said Friday that the regime tested an “underwater nuclear attack drone” and four cruise missile launches last week that leader Kim Jong-un oversaw.

According to the state-controlled Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the underwater drone “aims to stealthily go into the operational waters and destroy the enemy’s warships and major operational ports by creating superpower radioactive tidal waves with underwater explosion.”

The KCNA quoted Kim as saying that the exercises were to warn South Korea and the United States that “they will lose more” and “face greater threats” if they continue carrying out large-scale joint military exercises.

The amphibious landing ship USS Makin Island arrived in Busan on Wednesday to join the Ssangyong exercise, while the U.S. Navy’s Carrier Strike Group 11, led by the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, is set to arrive in the city’s naval base on Tuesday.

According to Seoul’s Defense Ministry on Monday, Carrier Strike Group 11 also includes the guided missile cruiser USS Bunker Hill, the guided missile destroyer USS Wayne E. Meyer, and the destroyer USS Decatur.

The carrier strike group joined the South Korean Navy’s guided missile destroyer Sejong the Great and the destroyer Choe Yeong for an exercise in international waters south of Jeju Island on Monday before it enters Busan Naval Base on Tuesday.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]