The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said the North’s latest missiles were launched from Samsok district in Pyongyang between 6:01 a.m. and 6:23 a.m.
The first short-range missile flew more than 350 kilometers at an apogee of around 80 kilometers and a speed of Mach 5. The other flew around 800 kilometers at an altitude of roughly 60 kilometers and a speed of around Mach 6.
The launches came after the USS Ronald Reagan carrier strike group returned to waters east of South Korea Wednesday evening after departing the area last week following a joint exercise between the South Korean and U.S. navies and a trilateral anti-submarine warfare exercise involving Japan.
According to the flight trajectories, analysts speculated that the first missile could be a KN-25 short-range ballistic missile and the second a KN-23, or North Korean version of Russia’s Iskander ballistic missile.
On Tuesday, North Korea launched an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), presumed to be a Hwasong-12, from Mupyong-ri in its northern Jagang Province, which flew 4,500 kilometers over Japan and into the Pacific Ocean. That missile had an altitude of 970 kilometers and a top speed of Mach 17.
That was the first time North Korea flew a missile over Japan since Sept. 15, 2017.
The Ronald Reagan held another trilateral exercise with South Korea and Japan in international waters in the East Sea on Thursday.
The JCS confirmed in a press briefing that South Korea, the United States, and Japan “conducted missile defense drills to counter the North Korean ballistic missile provocation in the East Sea today.” It involved Aegis destroyers including South Korea’s King Sejong the Great and Japan’s Chokai.
“Due to the difficult circumstances, the Ronald Reagan, which was on its way to its next assignment after completing the South Korea-U.S. joint exercise, entered our waters around 8 p.m. last night,” President Yoon Suk-yeol told reporters at the Yongsan presidential office Thursday morning.
Yoon addressed North Korea’s missile tests earlier that morning and also noted its IRBM launch on Tuesday put the U.S. territory of Guam within range. Guam, home to a U.S. Air Force strategic bomber base, is around 3,400 kilometers from Pyongyang.
“Guam is where the U.S. military’s main strategic assets to be deployed to the Korean Peninsula in case of a contingency on the Korean Peninsula are located,” said Yoon.
“I know the people may be concerned, but our government will thoroughly take care of the people’s lives and safety through a strong South Korea-U.S. alliance and security cooperation with the United States and Japan.”
A South Korean National Security Council (NSC) standing committee convened a meeting later Thursday morning and condemned the North’s latest ballistic missile test.
The meeting was presided over by National Security Adviser Kim Sung-han, according to the presidential office.
The NSC noted that the latest provocation was carried out as the UN Security Council met in New York to discuss North Korea’s ballistic missile launches and “strongly condemned it as a challenge to the international community that cannot be overlooked.”
The NSC warned that “North Korea’s provocation will be met by an even stronger response,” as demonstrated by the redeployment of the Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier strike group in the East Sea.
On Wednesday, the UN Security Council in New York convened a meeting to discuss North Korea’s ballistic missile launch over Japan, but failed to come to a consensus.
During the meeting, veto-wielding members Russia and China claimed that U.S.-led military exercises in the region had provoked North Korea, and the 15-member Security Council failed to agree to a joint statement about Pyongyang.
Instead, 11 countries — including the United States, South Korea and Japan — issued a separate statement condemning North Korea for launching a series of ballistic missiles including the one over Japan. The other countries that backed the statement were France, Britain, India, Albania, Brazil, Ireland, Norway and the United Arab Emirates
They noted that North Korea launched over 35 ballistic missiles this year alone.
“We will not stay silent as the DPRK works to undermine the global nonproliferation regime and threaten the international community,” said U.S. Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield.
She referred to the acronym for the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
“The DPRK made its intentions clear in April and September when its leader [Kim Jong-un] signaled an effort to accelerate the DPRK’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs and even alluded to pre-emptive use of nuclear forces,” said Thomas-Greenfield. “We are witnessing the DPRK’s pursuit of this objective.”
She underscored that the United States and the countries supporting the statement remain “committed to diplomacy and continue to call on the DPRK to return to dialogue.”
Pyongyang’s Foreign Ministry in an English-language statement released in the North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) Thursday said it “strongly condemns” Washington for deploying the U.S. carrier strike group to the peninsula.
In the statement, it blamed the United States and “some of its vassal forces,” likely referring to South Korea and Japan, “for unwarrantedly bringing to the United Nations Security Council the just counteraction taken by the [North] Korean People’s Army against south Korea-U.S. joint drills escalating the military tensions on the Korean peninsula.”
It added it is “watching closely the United States which is posing a serious threat to the stability of the situation on the Korean peninsula and its vicinity by dispatching again the carrier strike group to the waters off the Korean peninsula.”
Yoon held a 25-minute conversation on the phone with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida from around 5:30 p.m. Thursday to discuss a coordinated response on North Korea.
The two leaders “strongly condemned” North Korea’s ballistic missile launches as a “serious and grave provocation that threatens the peace and security of not only the Korean Peninsula but Northeast Asia and the international community,” said the presidential office.
The two leaders shared the view that North Korea’s “reckless provocations must be halted” and that “it is necessary to accurately convey the message that such provocations come at a cost.”
They agreed on the importance of trilateral security cooperation between South Korea, the United States and Japan and solidarity with the international community, including the UN Security Council.
The two leaders shared the view that South Korea and Japan are “partners for cooperation” and agreed to communicate “frequently and without formality” on various issues, including security matters, added the presidential office.
The two leaders met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Sept. 21, where they shared “serious concerns” about North Korea’s nuclear program, including Pyongyang’s recent enactment of a law allowing the use of pre-emptive nuclear strikes.
In a phone conversation with U.S. President Joe Biden, Kishida said he communicated with Yoon recently at the UN General Assembly and said he “would like to seek future-oriented development” with South Korea based on the friendship that has been built up since the 1965 bilateral treaty normalizing bilateral ties, according to his office Wednesday.
Replying to a reporter’s question on Japan, Yoon on Thursday said he noted that Kishida made remarks that “were quite forward-looking” and stressed he would like to discuss security issues with the Japanese prime minister especially in light of the IRBM scare.
The escalated tensions on the Korean Peninsula come as military authorities are on the watch for a possible seventh nuclear test by North Korea. Pyongyang last conducted a nuclear test on Sept. 3, 2017.
Yoon’s People Power Party (PPP) blamed the Moon Jae-in government for what it called “submissive diplomacy” toward the North, enabling Pyongyang to advance its nuclear weapons program.
Chung Jin-suk, the PPP’s interim leader, said in a meeting of the party’s emergency steering committee Thursday, “The five years of a ‘peace show’ conducted by the Moon Jae-in administration led to a total security crisis.”
Lawmakers from the liberal Democratic Party (DP), in turn, expressed concern over a “security vacuum” after South Korea and the United States’ attempt at a show of force in response to the North’s IRBM led to an embarrassing moment when a Hyunmoo-2 missile crashed after launch during a joint drill in Gangwon Tuesday night.
The Hyunmoo-2 missile was determined to have flown backward, not forward, and landed on a military golf course behind the launch site in Gangneung, near a civilian residence.
Kim Seung-kyum, chairman of the JCS, apologized for the Hyunmoo missile crash during a parliamentary audit in Thursday and said he was sorry it “caused concerns for local residents and the public.”
BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]
