North Korea tests missiles ahead of US election, says US actions legitimize its nuclear arsenal

Seoul – North Korea fired a number of short-range missiles early Tuesday, Seoul’s military said. It was Pyongyang’s second launch in days and came just hours ago The American people were going to vote to the new president.

The nuclear-armed North last week checked what it said was its most advanced and powerful intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). That was Kim Jong Un’s first weapons test since he came into existence accused by American and Ukrainian officials of sending troops to help fully support Russia’s continued operations invasion of Ukraine.

North Koreawhich has denied the deployment, is under growing international pressure to withdraw its troops from Russia, as Seoul warned on Tuesday that thousands of troops were being deployed to frontline areas, including Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces have pushed back in recent months. .

Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected “short-range missiles” around 7:30 a.m. Tuesday (5:30 p.m. Eastern, Monday) in waters east of the Korean peninsula. The missiles flew about 248 kilometers and Seoul’s military said they followed the launch in real time while sharing information with Tokyo and Washington.

“In preparation for more launches, our forces have intensified surveillance and vigilance,” it added. Seoul was expected to receive more US help in monitoring the North’s missile launches, meanwhile, with the State Department in Washington announcing on Monday the approval of a new military aid package worth about five billion dollars.

That package includes the potential sale of an airborne early warning and control system to South Korea, with the approval of four E-7 Airborne Early Warning & Control (AEW&C) aircraft, 10 jet engines, and other systems and support equipment, at a limited cost. cost of $4.92 billion.

The warning and control aircraft, known as Wedgetails, will enable South Korea to detect missiles and other threats much faster and from greater distances than ground-based radar systems.

“This proposed sale will enhance the Republic of Korea’s ability to meet current and future threats by providing more intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) and early warning and airborne control capabilities,” the State Department said. “It will also increase the ROK Air Force’s command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and interoperability (C4ISR) with the United States.”

On Sunday, South Korea, Japan and the United States conducted a joint air drill involving a US B-1B bomber, South Korean F-15K and KF-16 fighter jets, and Japanese F-2 jets, in response to the launch of ICBM. Such joint exercises infuriate Pyongyang, which it views as offensive exercises.

Pyongyang called its latest launch “a direct response to three joint air tests over the weekend,” Han Kwon-hee of the Korea Association of Defense Industry Studies told AFP. “Since it was a bunch of short-range missiles, the North shows that it not only has long-range missiles that can reach the US, but also has a short range to target all bases in South Korea and Japan.”

Kim Yo Jongthe sister of the country’s leader and the main spokesperson, called US-South Korea-Japan uses “the description based on the action of the most brutal and dangerous situation of the enemy towards our Republic.”

In a statement issued on Tuesday by the official Korean Central News Agency, he said the research is “complete proof of the authenticity and urgency of the nuclear power line we have chosen and implemented.”

Seoul has long accused the nuclear-armed North of sending weapons to help Moscow fight Kyiv and has accused Pyongyang of moving to send more troops since Kim signed a defense pact with Russian President Vladimir Putin in June.

“There are more than 10,000 North Korea’s military is currently in Russiaand we are checking that most of them have been distributed in key areas, including Kursk,” said Jeon Ha-gyu, a spokesman for South Korea’s Defense Ministry, on Tuesday.

Soul, a major arms manufacturer, said yes to review whether weapons are sent directly to Ukraine in response, something it has been resisting because of a long-standing domestic policy that prohibits it from supplying weapons to active conflicts.

With its latest assessment, “Pyongyang is showing that its contribution of weapons and troops to Russia’s war in Ukraine is not reducing its military activities closer to home,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul. “On the contrary, cooperation with Moscow seems to allow a clear violation of the resolutions of the UN Security Council.”

On Monday, Robert Wood, the US deputy ambassador to the UN, criticized the North’s ballistic missile program and said that Russia and China are preventing the UN from arresting Pyongyang.

Beijing and Moscow have “defended the DPRK time and again, contributed to the normalization of these tests and encouraged the DPRK to continue violating sanctions and resolutions of this Council,” he said, referring to the North by its official name.

Speaking on Tuesday in Moscow, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko said the North’s missile test was the right way to respond to US “provocation”, according to Russian news agency TASS.