North Korea fired a ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan. This was announced on Saturday, February 18, by the agency yonhap with reference to the South Korean Ministry of Defense.
“North Korea launched an unidentified ballistic missile towards the Sea of Japan,” the agency said.
On the eve of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the DPRK promised a response to the expansion of US and South Korean military exercises. Washington and Seoul’s plans to hold some 20 joint large-scale military exercises over the course of 2023 demonstrate that the situation on the Korean Peninsula could plunge into a “maelstrom of serious tensions,” according to the agency.
Earlier, on February 16, the UN announced a closed meeting of the Security Council on the issue of North Korea. On the same day, Konstantin Asmolov, a leading researcher at the Center for Korean Studies at the Institute of China and Modern Asia of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said in a conversation with Izvestia that at the moment North and South Korea have begun to “quite actively” follow the path of militarization. In his opinion, both sides believe that they have the right to take protective measures against each other, which, however, leads only to a vicious circle.
Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin on January 31 allowed the US to use nuclear weapons to protect South Korea. He pointed to a record number of provocative actions by the DPRK in 2022. The head of the Pentagon separately noted that one of the largest foreign contingents of the US Armed Forces, numbering 28.5 thousand, is located in South Korea, which, in turn, should demonstrate Washington’s commitment to maintaining peace on the Korean Peninsula.
At the same time, the heads of the defense departments of the United States and South Korea issued a joint statement in which they agreed to expand the scope of joint exercises in 2023.
Prior to this, on January 1, the head of the DPRK, Kim Jong-un, ordered the development of a new intercontinental ballistic missile and the mass production of tactical nuclear weapons to protect the sovereignty and security of North Korea.
On December 31, Pyongyang launched three missiles towards the Sea of Japan, they flew about 350 km, after which they fell into the sea. Japan, through diplomatic channels in Beijing, protested to Pyongyang in connection with the missile launches. In total, in 2022, the DPRK launched 70 ballistic missiles, which was a record for the development of these weapons by the country.
