North Korea fired several short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea, one day after the US, South Korea, and Japan concluded their trilateral Freedom Edge war games.
The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff reported detecting several short-range ballistic missiles launched by North Korea into the East Sea. Seoul said it had stepped up its missile detection capabilities and the military was on “full alert.”
US Pacific Command said that the missile test did not present a threat to American forces.
The missile test followed the US, South Korea, and Japan wrapping up the joint Freedom Edge war games. The drills aimed to improve military coordination between the three nations across several domains, including air, maritime, missile defense, and cyber operations.
Pyongyang strongly condemned Freedom Edge before the drills began and warned that it could respond with countermeasures. North Korean Minister Kim Song-gi said Freedom Edge was pushing the situation to the brink. “US-led military demonstrations are being held one after another, without any break in time or space, as military cooperation between the United States, Japan and the Republic of Korea evolves into a dangerous offensive alliance with nuclear elements.” He continued, “This reality poses a serious security threat, pushing instability on the Korean Peninsula and beyond to the brink.”
Last month, President Donald Trump said that the US and South Korean bilateral Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) war games were unnecessarily hostile toward North Korea. “These exercises are not only costly, with much of these costs paid for by the United States of America (as usual!), but send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile, to a Country that, as long as Donald J. Trump has been President, has been unthreatening and respectful,” he posted on Truth Social.
While Trump cut the UFS drills in half, the Freedom Edge war games went forward as planned.. South Korean Rear Adm. Kim Ji-hoon called the Freedom Edge drills the “most effective” exercises. “The trilateral Freedom Edge exercise is being executed to counter North Korean nuclear and missile threats and that’s the main purpose of the exercise,” he added.
Trump’s decision to scale back the UFS drills appeared to be part of a push to secure a meeting with North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un. Kim’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, rebuked the overture, saying that merely scaling back the war games did not change the hostile US policy towards North Korea.
