North Korea Launches Ballistic Missiles into East Sea... Targeting South Korea-Japan Summit (Update)

Military Analyzing Detailed Specifications of Missile Types
Yoon-Kishida Summit Scheduled Today in Tokyo
Characterized by Monitoring Korea-Japan Summit and Korea-US Joint Exercises

North Korea fired a ballistic missile into the East Sea on the 16th, the day of the scheduled South Korea-Japan summit, the Joint Chiefs of Staff announced. This marks the sixth missile provocation this year and comes two days after launching a short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) near Jangyeon, South Hwanghae Province on the 14th.

The military is currently analyzing detailed specifications such as the missile type and flight distance.

North Korean ballistic missile
[Image source=Yonhap News]

North Korea's provocation on this day appears to be aimed at the South Korea-Japan summit where President Yoon Suk-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio are meeting in Tokyo. South Korea and Japan have recently strengthened security cooperation through trilateral exercises with the United States, focusing particularly on joint responses to North Korea's ballistic missile provocations. For example, after North Korea launched the Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on the 18th of last month, the three countries conducted missile defense exercises in the East Sea four days later as a joint response.

If the South Korea-Japan relationship, which was in a cooling period during the Moon Jae-in administration, begins to restore through this summit, military cooperation such as the normalization of the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) is expected to increase significantly. North Korea may be preemptively trying to check this.

Furthermore, North Korea's provocation is also understood to be a reaction against the South Korea-U.S. joint exercise "Freedom Shield (FS)," which is taking place from the 13th to the 23rd. South Korea and the U.S. revived large-scale field training exercises (FTX), which had been reduced during the Moon Jae-in administration, in the FS exercise. North Korea has labeled these joint exercises as "war preparations" and announced that it has decided on "practical measures" to counter them.

North Korea has recently increased the frequency of provocations, firing two submarine-launched cruise missiles (SLCM) on the 12th, the day before FS began, and six missiles with ranges in the close-range ballistic missile (CRBM) category on the 9th.

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