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| People at Seoul Station watch a TV monitor showing the latest launch of a short-range ballistic missile by North Korea, Wednesday. Yonhap |
By Ko Dong-hwan
North Korea fired one short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) into the East Sea Wednesday afternoon, just days after it launched over 30 missiles between Nov. 2 and 5.
The North's provocation came as the United States awaited the outcome of the U.S. midterm elections, Tuesday.
The SRBM was launched from North Korea's western county of Sukcheon in South Pyeongan Province at about 3:31 p.m., according to the Joint Chief of Staffs (JCS). The authority added that the missile flew about 290 kilometers east, at an altitude of 30 kilometers and speed of Mach 6. It fell near an uninhabited island in waters near the eastern province of South Hamgyeong.
South Korean and U.S. intelligence agencies began analyzing the missile's characteristics and said it could have been one of the latest versions developed by North Korea, such as the KN-23 Iskander or KN-24 ATACMS.
When the missile was fired, the JCS also spotted movements of multiple North Korean aircraft around the launch site. Whether the movements were related to the missile remained unclear as of Wednesday night.
The JCS said Seoul and Washington shared intelligence information shortly after detecting the missile and confirmed the need for stronger bilateral cooperation.
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| This undated photo provided by South Korean Defense Ministry on Wednesday shows the retrieved debris of a missile in South Korea's East Sea which it identified as a North Korea's SA-5 surface-to-air missile according to South Korea's military. Courtesy of Ministry of National Defense |
"A series of North Korean ballistic missile launches is a grave act of provocation that threatens peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula as well as the international community, and a clear violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions," the JCS added, urging Pyongyang to stop such destabilizing acts.
South Korea was in its third day of holding the Command Post Exercise, a South Korean military drill, when the North fired the latest missile.
North Korea was widely expected to resort to fresh provocations before the U.S. midterm election as the communist state had conducted various belligerent acts before major political events. In 2006, North Korea conducted a nuclear test one month before the U.S. midterm election. Kim Jong-il, the late father of current North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, test-fired North Korea's first long-range missile in 1998, three months before the U.S. midterm election.
Wednesday's missile provocation by Pyongyang came after the reclusive state fired about 35 missiles during Nov. 2 and 5. The hostile show of force occurred during Vigilant Storm, a joint South Korea-U.S. aerial exercise.
Pyongyang's provocation this time is the latest in an unusually large number of missiles fired this year by the Kim Jung-un regime to flex its military muscle to the outside world. Last Saturday, the regime launched four SRBMs into the West Sea from North Pyeongan Province. Two days before that, the North fired an intercontinental ballistic missile and two SRBMs in the morning, followed by another three SRBMs at night. The missiles were all launched from different locations.
For the first time since the division of the two Koreas after World War II, the North on Nov. 2 fired an SRBM into the South Korean side of a maritime border known as the Northern Limit Line (NLL) dividing the two sides. It was launched from Wonsan, Gangwon Province, at about 8:51 a.m. and landed 26 kilometers south of the NLL, 57 kilometers east of Sokcho and 167 kilometers northwest of Ulleungdo Island. Residents of the island were forced to evacuate after emergency warning sirens blared following the missile's launch. Pyongyang launched a total of 25 missiles on that day alone.
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