South Korea: North Korea launches missile off its coast

Seoul, South Korea –

North Korea tested two ballistic missiles on Monday, the South Korean military said, a day after the North vowed “offensive and overwhelming” responses to a new U.S. military exercise with South Korea and Japan.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missiles were launched 10 minutes apart toward the northeast from the city of Jangyon in southeastern North Korea.

The first missile traveled 600 kilometers and the second 120 kilometers, but did not say where they landed. North Korea usually conducts missile tests toward its eastern waters, but the flight distance of the second missile was too short to reach those waters.

According to South Korean media, an unidentified South Korean military source said it was very likely that the second missile crashed in an interior area in the North. Any damage on North Korean soil was not immediately reported.

The first missile reportedly landed in waters off the eastern city of Chongjin.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, who did not comment on the media reports, said South Korea remained firmly prepared to repel any provocation by North Korea under its military alliance with the United States.

A U.S. fighter jet takes off from the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt during Exercise Freedom Edge led by the United States, Japan and South Korea in the East Sea, Friday, June 28, 2024. (US Navy via AP)

The launch comes two days after the end of the new trilateral multi-domain exercises between South Korea, the United States and Japan. The “Freedom Edge” exercise involved a U.S. aircraft carrier and destroyers, fighter jets and helicopters from the three countries, which also practiced missile defense, anti-submarine warfare and maritime interdiction exercises.

The Freedom Edge exercise was meant to increase the sophistication of previous exercises by simultaneously holding air and naval exercises aimed at improving ballistic missile defense, anti-submarine warfare, surveillance and other skills and capabilities. The three-day exercise involved a U.S. aircraft carrier as well as destroyers, fighter jets and helicopters from the three countries.

On Sunday, North Korea's Foreign Ministry issued a lengthy statement strongly denouncing the “Freedom Edge” exercise, calling the U.S.-South Korea-Japan partnership the Asian version of NATO. He said the exercise openly destroyed the security environment on the Korean Peninsula and contained a US intention to besiege China and exert pressure on Russia.

The statement said North Korea “will firmly defend state sovereignty, security and interests as well as regional peace through aggressive and overwhelming countermeasures.”

Monday's firing was the North's first weapons firing in five days. Last Wednesday, North Korea launched what it called a multi-warhead missile, the first known firing of an advanced weapon under development intended to defeat U.S. and South Korean missile defenses. North Korea claimed the launch was a success, but South Korea rejected the North's claims, saying it was a deception to cover up a failed launch.

In recent weeks, North Korea has launched numerous balloons containing trash toward South Korea, in what it has described as a retaliatory response to South Korean activists who have been sending political leaflets via their own balloons. Last month, North Korea and Russia also reached an agreement to provide mutual defense assistance in the event of an attack by either side, a major defense deal that has raised concerns that it could embolden Kim to launch new provocations against South Korea.

Meanwhile, North Korea opened a key ruling party meeting on Friday to determine what it called “important and immediate issues” related to work to further strengthen Korean-style socialism.