North Korea fires ballistic missile ahead of US-South drills

SEOUL — North Korea fired a ballistic missile off its east coast towards Japan early on Wednesday, Seoul’s military said, days before the planned start of massive US-South Korea joint drills.

Joint exercises between South Korea and the United States lasting 11 days are due to start on Monday, a regular fixture of the summer calendar designed to steel them for defense against the nuclear-armed North.

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Pyongyang bristles at the drills — calling them rehearsals for an invasion — and has staged missile launches before and after the exercises in the past.

“Our military detected at around 6:00 am (2100 GMT on Tuesday) a ballistic missile launched by North Korea from the Wonsan area towards the East Sea,” Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a message to reporters, referring to the body of water also known as the Sea of Japan.

Japan’s defence ministry also described the object as a suspected ballistic missile, adding that it was thought to have “already fallen”, without providing further details.

“North Korea has never simply let a South Korea-US joint military exercise pass without a response,” Lim Eul-chul, a North Korea expert at Kyungnam University, told AFP.

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“This is a message that Pyongyang is closely watching the upcoming drills and could stage a provocation if it deems one necessary.”

READ: US, allies warn against unannounced missile launches

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North Korea has also been hurling criticism at Japan, a former regional colonial power, over what Pyongyang describes as its remilitarisation.

Japan has long held a pacifist stance, but has recently been increasing military spending, ramping up defense pacts and deploying missile launchers to its outer islands.

Tokyo’s Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said last week that Japan’s military needed to be boosted with a “sense of urgency and crisis”.

Pyongyang lambasted Japan’s “transformation into a war state”, and shortly afterwards fired a short-range ballistic missile off its eastern coast, according to Seoul’s military.

Conflict experience

North Korea has been playing a more active role in international conflict, notably backing Russia in its invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine accused Russia on Tuesday of launching North Korean missiles in an attack that killed 10 and wounded dozens.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has also warned — without providing evidence — that Moscow has been receiving more ballistic projectiles and troops from Pyongyang.

Experts say North Korea has received financial and military benefits from Moscow in return for its support.

Its troops have also gained crucial experience on modern battlefields.

The US-South Korea “Ulchi Freedom Shield” drills due on Monday will include 18,000 South Korean troops and counterparts from the US contingent of 28,500 in the country.

A spokesman said they will prepare soldiers for a potential fight against North Korean troops battle-hardened from deployment in Europe.

North Korean soldiers have “taken those lessons they learned there and brought them back to North Korea,” said Colonel Ryan Donald, spokesman for the US and South Korean Combined Forces Command, on Monday.

“Our training accounts for that threat,” he told reporters. /dl