In the early hours of Saturday, North Korea carried out another provocation by launching a series of ballistic missiles into the sea off its east coast. The information was officially confirmed by both the US Indo-Pacific Command (USPACOM) and South Korea's military intelligence.
According to data from the South Korean Joint Forces Command, cited by world news agencies such as Reuters and Al Jazeera, the missiles were launched at around 5:20 a.m. local time from the area of the eastern coastal city of Wonsan. The shells flew a distance of about 250 kilometers before falling into the waters of the Sea of Japan.
The reaction of Washington and its allies
The US Indo-Pacific Command immediately published an official position on the social network X, reported by the Turkish state agency Anadolu Agency. The US side assures that the event is under constant monitoring and intensive consultations are being held with Tokyo and Seoul.
“Based on current assessments, this event does not pose an immediate threat to US military personnel, US territory, or our allies“, the Pentagon statement, quoted by The Hill, states. Washington stressed that the US commitment to the defense of South Korea and Japan remains ironclad.
Background of the conflict and the “Freedom Edge“ exercises
The missile tests come just a day after the United States, South Korea and Japan concluded a massive five-day joint naval exercise known as “Freedom Edge“. Pyongyang traditionally views the maneuvers as a rehearsal for invasion. Hours before the launches, North Korean Defense Minister Kim Song-gi warned that his country was ready to take “strong and crushing countermeasures from a position of strength”, ABC News reported.
The situation is also complicated by the political context in Washington, where President Donald Trump recently ordered a reduction in the scale of other regular exercises (“Ulchi Freedom Shield”) in order to renew diplomacy with Kim Jong-un. However, the North Korean leader's influential sister, Kim Yo-jong, rejected the move, saying that the change in scale does not change the “aggressive nature” of American policy.
Security experts cited by The Japan Times note that Kim Jong-un feels increasingly confident in his demands for concessions from the United States, especially against the backdrop of North Korea's increased technological and military cooperation with Russia and China.