North Korea once again trying to stay in the headlines and are probably hoping to become a Presidential campaign topic. However, they are going to have to do something much more provocative than this to get the Presidential attention they crave:
North Korea fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles in a northeastern direction on Wednesday, South Korea’s military said, further ratcheting up tensions already heightened by its rare disclosure of a uranium enrichment facility last week.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected the launches at about 6:50 a.m. from the North’s Kaechon area in South Phyongan Province, north of Pyongyang, and the missiles flew about 400 kilometers.
You can read more at the link.
North Korea’s war against the fish in the East Sea continues:
North Korea fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles toward the East Sea on Thursday, the South Korean military said, a week after Pyongyang warned that South Korea and the United States will have to pay a “dear price” for their joint drills.
“The North Korean missiles flew about 360 kilometers and landed in the East Sea,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said. It said it detected the missiles launched from the Pyongyang area at 7:10 a.m., but it did not provide any further details, such as the number of missiles fired.
The distance, if fired southward, is sufficient to affect major South Korean cities such as Seoul and Daejeon as well as key military facilities in Gyeryong and Gunsan.
You can read more at the link.
Another day and another North Korean provocation:
North Korea fired several rounds of short-range ballistic missiles toward the East Sea on Monday, the South Korean military said, three days after it launched cruise missiles into the Yellow Sea.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected what appeared to be several short-range ballistic missiles launched from the Pyongyang region at 3:01 p.m.
“The North Korean missiles flew about 300 kilometers and splashed into the sea,” the JCS said in a text message to reporters. It did not provide further details, citing an ongoing analysis.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
The missile may have failed, but the test is only a failure if the engineers did not learn anything from it. As we have seen in the past, the North Koreans learn from their mistakes and have successfully built a number of capable missile systems:
Defense Minister Shin Won-sik said Sunday that North Korea’s hypersonic missile launched earlier this month was “unsuccessful in its last glide flight” but predicted that the North’s hypersonic missile with an intermediate range could be “successful one day.”
Shin made the assessment during an interview with public broadcaster KBS after the North claimed it successfully test-fired the Hwasongpho-16B, a new intermediate-range ballistic missile tipped with a hypersonic warhead.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
It appears that North Korea is trying to advance their ballistic missile technology to include hypersonic capabilities:
North Korea fired what appeared to be an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) into the East Sea on Tuesday, the South Korean military said, in its third ballistic missile launch of the year.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a message to reporters that it detected a missile presumed to be intermediate-range class fired from the Pyongyang region at 6:53 a.m. and the missile flew about 600 kilometers before landing in the East Sea.
Military officials suspect the North may have test-fired an intermediate-range missile equipped with a hypersonic warhead to test the performance of its delivery system following an engine test last month.
On March 20, Pyongyang said it successfully conducted a ground jet test of a solid-fuel engine for a new type of intermediate hypersonic missile.
“North Korea appears to have put a hypersonic warhead on top of the delivery system used in the engine test last month,” a senior military official said on the background.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
The only thing surprising about this missile firing is that they did not do this earlier for the start of the Freedom Shield exercise:
North Korea fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles toward the East Sea on Monday, the South Korean military said, just hours before talks between the top diplomats of South Korea and the United States.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected the missile launches in the area of Pyongyang between 7:44 a.m. and 8:22 a.m., which flew around 300 kilometers and landed in the East Sea.
“North Korea fired at least three missiles, and their trajectories were similar to those of KN-24,” a senior military official said.
The KN-24 is a solid-fuel ballistic missile with a range of up to 410 km and a payload of 400-500 kg.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
Considering the reported weapons deal between Russia and North Korea the fact that the Russian military is using cheaply made North Korean missiles should not be a suprise:
A man photographs parts of an unidentified missile, which Ukrainian authorities believe to be made in North Korea and was used in a strike in Kharkiv earlier this week, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Jan. 6. Reuters-Yonhap
The Kharkiv region prosecutor’s office provided further evidence on Saturday that Russia attacked Ukraine with missiles supplied by North Korea, showcasing the fragments.
A senior adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday that Russia hit Ukraine this week with missiles supplied by North Korea for the first time during its invasion.
Dmytro Chubenko, spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office, said the missile, one of several that hit the city of Kharkiv on Jan. 2, was visually and technically different from Russian models.
“The production method is not very modern. There are deviations from standard Iskander missiles, which we previously saw during strikes on Kharkiv. This missile is similar to one of the North Korean missiles,” Chubenko told media as he displayed the remnants.
Korea Times
You can read more at the link.
Kim Jong-il was the OG rocketman, so it is only fitting that his son would have a missile fired on his anniversary:
North Korea fired one short-range ballistic missile toward the East Sea on Sunday, the 12th anniversary of the death of late leader Kim Jong-il, according to South Korea’s military.
The launch briefly raised speculation that it could be an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) because South Korea’s First Deputy National Security Adviser Kim Tae-hyo said a few days earlier the North could fire an ICBM within this month.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, however, that the North fired a short-range missile from in or around Pyongyang at about 10:38 p.m. and it flew about 570 kilometers before splashing in the East Sea.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
Like it has done just about every August in recent memory, the North Koreans are continuing their offensive on the fish in the East Sea:
North Korea has fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea, South Korea’s military said Thursday, in apparent protest against combined South Korea-U.S. military drills.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected the launches from an area in or around Sunan in Pyongyang between around 11:40 p.m. and 11:50 p.m. Wednesday.
The missiles each flew some 360 kilometers before splashing into the waters, the JCS said, with the allies’ intelligence authorities conducting further analysis.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
