Presidential Office: "National Security Office Holds Security Situation Review Meeting on North Korea's Ballistic Projectiles"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki-min Lee] The Presidential Office held a security situation review meeting on the 12th in response to North Korea's multiple rocket launcher launch.

The Presidential Office announced through a press release at 11:07 p.m. that "Our military detected several trajectories presumed to be North Korean multiple rocket launcher projectiles from around 8:07 a.m. to 11:03 a.m. today."

This provocation by North Korea marks the fourth since the Yoon Suk-yeol administration took office and comes just a week after North Korea launched a salvo of eight suspected short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs).

According to the Presidential Office, the security situation review meeting, chaired by Kim Tae-hyo, First Deputy Director of the National Security Office (Secretary General of the National Security Council), was held from 10:30 a.m. for about an hour. Attendees received reports on the situation and reviewed the military’s readiness posture.

Attendees included Deputy Director Kim, Shin In-ho, Second Deputy Director of the National Security Office, Lim Sang-beom, Security Strategy Secretary, Lee Moon-hee, Foreign Affairs Secretary, Baek Tae-hyun, Unification Secretary, Lim Ki-hoon, Defense Secretary, and Kwon Young-ho, Head of the Crisis Management Center.

After the meeting, the results were reported to Kim Sung-han, Director of the National Security Office, who then briefed the President, the Presidential Office explained.

The Presidential Office emphasized, "The participants expressed concern over North Korea’s continuous improvement of various weapons systems that pose a direct threat to our security and reaffirmed the government’s position to calmly and firmly respond while continuously monitoring the situation."

Furthermore, the Presidential Office stated, "Typically, for conventional multiple rocket launchers with short range and low altitude like today’s, related information is not frequently disclosed. Considering this, the National Security Office responded promptly but did not immediately announce the situation." This is interpreted as an explanation for not informing the public immediately after detecting the trajectories of North Korea’s multiple rocket launcher launch.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) usually announce immediately to the media when a projectile presumed to be a ballistic missile is launched from North Korea, but they did not promptly disclose information regarding the trajectories presumed to be from multiple rocket launchers. Instead, the JCS partially disclosed the launch time and other details late in the afternoon following repeated media inquiries.

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