- The launch comes on the eve of Kamala Harris's visit.
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| The aircraft carrier Ronal Reagan, during military exercises in South Korea. |
North Korea fires two ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan during US-Seoul military exercises
North Korea fired two ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan (called the East Sea in the two Koreas) on Wednesday, an action that takes place during the course of maneuvers carried out by a US aircraft carrier in that area and on the eve of the US Vice President Kamala Harris visits South Korea.
"The Republic of Korea Army (the official name of South Korea) detected two short-range ballistic missiles launched between 18:10 and 18:20 today (9:10-9:20 GMT) from the Sunan area of Pyongyang, North Korea, to the East Sea," the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a statement.
The South Korean Army had previously reported the detection of an unidentified first launch by the neighboring country.
Sunan, from where the missiles were fired, is the area where the North Korean capital's airport is located and a place from which the regime has launched some of its most sophisticated projectiles.
Harris Eve
This launch comes after another carried out this past weekend coinciding with the arrival in the region of the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, and one day before Harris arrives in South Korea, where she is scheduled to visit the militarized border between the two countries.
In fact, Harris is in Japan this Wednesday, where he visited the Yokosuka base, the largest US naval enclave abroad, where the number two of the Biden Administration reiterated Washington's commitment to the defense of its partners in the region.
The Japanese Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, has called an emergency meeting to analyze the information available on the North Korean missiles, which fell outside the waters of the Japanese exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and which are not known to have caused damage to ships.
Military exercises
The aforementioned aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan has its base port in Yokosuka and will be leading joint maneuvers on the South Korean east coast for which more than 20 vessels have been mobilized, in addition to F-18, F-15, and F-16 fighters from both South Korea and even the US nuclear-powered submarine USS Annapolis.
These exercises seek to send a message to North Korea, disconnected from the disarmament dialogue since the pandemic began and immersed in a weapons modernization plan.
The last time Ronald Reagan came to the peninsula to rehearse operational scenarios with South Korean forces was in September 2017, in the midst of an escalation of tension after the last North Korean nuclear test to date.
Seoul and Washington are now seeking to send a message of strength at a time when their intelligence services assume that Pyongyang has been ready for months to carry out what would be its seventh underground nuclear detonation at its Punggye-ri test center (northeast from the country).
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