North Korea test-fired a ballistic missile ahead of joint US and South Korean war games. Pyongyang also warned that Seoul and Tokyo are moving towards nuclear weapons.
On Wednesday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff reported North Korea fired a ballistic missile for the second time in the past six days. The missile launches come as the US and South Korea are preparing to start the Ulchi Freedom Shield war games next week.
North Korea views the American-led war games as preparation for a regime change operation against Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un. Military drills between the US and South Korea often provoke North Korea into conducting multiple missile tests.
Pyongyang also issued statements on Wednesday condemning advances in the South Korean and Japanese nuclear programs. South Korea’s “scheme for possessing a nuclear submarine, which has recently entered the phase of practice, is amplifying the instability of the regional security environment,” Jang Kum Chol, first vice-minister and director general of the Tenth Department of the DPRK Foreign Ministry, said.
South Korea “has secretly pushed ahead with its plan for building a nuclear submarine since 2003. [South Korea’s] ambition to possess nuclear submarine is neither a ‘reflective measure’ to respond to the [Pyongyang’s] possession of nuclear weapons nor a matter of defensive nature to cope with the ‘regional threat.’” He continued, “Obviously, the [South Korea] harbors another ambition.”
Pyongyang also took aim at Japan’s nuclear plans. “At a recent cabinet ministerial conference on the atomic power policy, Japan reportedly decided an action guideline calling for ‘making the utmost use of atomic power for energy security and decarbonization,’” Ri Myong Nam, an international affairs analyst of the DPRK, wrote. “At a glance, it is illuminated as a medium- and long-term plan for satisfying the daily-increasing domestic energy demand, but in view of the relations with the policy of atomic power pursued by Japan, the guideline contains a sinister and cunning strategic attempt that can never be overlooked.”
