Asia-Pacific

North Korea fires three short-range ballistic missiles

South Korea accused North Korea earlier this week of flying five drones across the rivals’ tense border

A television screen at a railway station in Seoul on December 31st shows a news broadcast with file footage of a North Korean missile test. Photograph: JUNG YEON-JE/AFP via Getty Images

Sat Dec 31 2022 - 08:11

North Korea has fired three short-range ballistic missiles toward its eastern waters in its latest weapons display.

It came a day after rival South Korea launched a solid-fuelled rocket as part of its efforts to build a space-based surveillance capability to better monitor the North.

Tensions between the rival Koreas rose earlier this week when South Korea accused North Korea of flying five drones across the rivals’ tense border for the first time in five years and responded by sending its own drones toward the North.

South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff said in a statement it detected the three launches from an inland area south of Pyongyang, the North’s capital, on Saturday morning.

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It said the three missiles travelled about 220 miles (354km) before landing in the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. The estimated range suggests the missiles tested could target South Korea.

The joint chiefs of staff called the launches “a grave provocation” that undermines international peace, adding that it closely monitors North Korean moves in co-ordination with the United States and maintains a readiness to “overwhelmingly” deter any provocation by Pyongyang.

Earlier on Saturday, Japan’s defence ministry also reported suspected ballistic missile firings by North Korea.

It was North Korea’s first missile launch in eight days and came five days after South Korea said it detected the North Korean drones, all presumed to be small surveillance drones, south of the border.

Before Saturday’s launches, North Korea had already test-fired more than 70 missiles this year. Many of them were nuclear-capable weapons designed to attack the US mainland and its allies South Korea and Japan. – AP

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