North Korea Launches Ballistic Missile into East Sea... First Provocation Since Yoon Administration Inauguration

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Yang Nak-gyu, Military Specialist Reporter] The Joint Chiefs of Staff announced on the 12th that North Korea fired an "unidentified ballistic missile" into the East Sea.

The military authorities are analyzing the specifications such as range and altitude. This launch came five days after firing a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) on the 7th and marks the 16th show of force this year, as well as the first provocation since the Yoon Suk-yeol administration took office on the 10th.

On the same day, North Korea acknowledged the occurrence of COVID-19 cases for the first time and announced a transition to the highest emergency quarantine system. Despite imposing nationwide lockdown measures for COVID-19 prevention, they carried out a show of force.

Internally, it is interpreted that they intend to focus on national quarantine while externally continuing their "policy to strengthen the Ministry of National Defense" according to their plans.

As expectations arose that all national resources would be concentrated on quarantine efforts due to the COVID-19 outbreak and provocations such as nuclear tests would be restrained, this move drew a clear line.

Meanwhile, the Joint Chiefs of Staff usually announced the detection of ballistic missiles in the form of "Step 1" as "North Korea, unidentified projectile launch," but on this day, they changed the expression from "projectile" to "unidentified ballistic missile."

This is known to reflect the stance of President Yoon Suk-yeol, who has repeatedly declared a firm position on North Korean missiles since his presidential candidacy, as well as the new government's policy direction.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.