North Korea has fired its new ballistic missiles again

This was the second release in just five days. A few hours before the presidential election in the United States, his great rival, the North Korea fired a new salvo of short-range ballistic missiles on Tuesday morning. An exercise that comes at a time when North Korea, which has nuclear weapons, is accused of sending troops to Russia to fight against Ukraine.

On Thursday, the totalitarian regime was already announced after testing its new intercontinental ballistic missile (solid fuel ICBM), the most advanced in its arsenal. “In anticipation of further launches, our armed forces have strengthened their surveillance and monitoring,” South Korea said, indicating it was sharing information with Tokyo and Washington.

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba confirmed to reporters in Tokyo that “several ballistic missiles” had been launched, which “are believed to have fallen outside” Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

Korea and the US responded

The launch comes after the defense ministers of the United States and South Korea called on Pyongyang to withdraw its troops from Russia, where, according to Washington, about 10,000 soldiers were deployed with a view to possible action against the forces of Ukraine, in a war with the Russian army from 2022. In response, South Korea, Japan and the United States went on Sunday to a joint air exercise involving a heavy bomber in response to the launch of the ICBM.

A way to attract attention?

US-South Korean military maneuvers will never bother Pyongyang, which sees them as a prelude to future attacks on its territory. Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, said the exercise was “just a new, action-oriented definition of the enemy’s most hostile and aggressive natural threat to our Republic”. The latter warned that “any disruption of the balance of power between rivals on the Korean peninsula and in the region will surely mean war.”

Pyongyang’s series of weapons tests could be an attempt to attract attention, experts say of his use of troops in Russiaor to be at the forefront of concerns before the American election on Tuesday that pitted Donald Trump against Kamala Harris.