The South Korean military announced that North Korea launched three short-range ballistic missiles towards the East Sea on Saturday morning. The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff reported that the launches were detected from the town of Chunghwa in North Hwanghae Province starting at 8 a.m. The missiles flew approximately 350 kilometers before falling into the sea, according to the Yonhap News Agency. No further details were provided, but South Korean and U.S. intelligence agencies are conducting a detailed analysis of the missile characteristics.
The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff condemned the launches, describing them as a "major provocation" harmful to peace and stability and a "clear" violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions. In a text message sent to reporters, they stated, "While strengthening monitoring and vigilance, our military maintains a full readiness posture in close cooperation with the United States."
These launches come a day after South Korea conducted a test launch of a domestically developed solid-fuel space vehicle, and at a time when North Korea is expected to announce its policy goals for 2023 following a general meeting of the ruling Workers' Party Central Committee this week. Japan's defense ministry reported detecting what it believes to be North Korean ballistic missile launches, while the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command stated that these launches demonstrate North Korea's "destabilizing" influence from its illegal weapons programs, reaffirming that U.S. commitments to defend South Korea and Japan "remain unwavering." Washington indicated that the missiles launched by North Korea today do not pose an immediate threat to the United States or its allies.
