North Korea fired short-range ballistic missiles just days after South Korean President Lee Jae Myung expressed regret over an incident involving drones that crossed the border into the North’s airspace.
Pyongyang launched the missiles from near Wonsan toward waters off its east coast on Wednesday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said. South Korea’s national security council held an emergency meeting and urged North Korea to stop acts that violate UN Security Council resolutions.
The launch took place days after a North Korean statement conveyed leader Kim Jong Un’s rare praise for Lee in response to his apology over the drones. Seoul touted the messages exchanged by the two leaders as a “meaningful step forward” for their peaceful coexistence.
In the statement on Monday, Kim’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, had said the North Korean leader referred to Lee’s apology as “a manifestation of a frank and broad-minded man’s attitude.”
North Korea, however, later dismissed Seoul’s interpretation of the statement as a “hope-filled dream reading.”
“The thematic core of the press statement was a clear warning,” a senior North Korean official said in a separate statement Tuesday. “The identity of the ROK, the enemy state most hostile to the DPRK, can never change with any words or conduct,” the official said.
Wednesday’s launch also comes a day after North Korea fired a projectile in what may have been a failed weapons test. The type of the projectile tested wasn’t immediately clear, but Yonhap News said it might have been a ballistic missile.
That projectile — fired on Tuesday — flew eastward before showing signs of anomaly early in flight and disappearing, Yonhap said. The missiles launched on Wednesday flew about 240 kilometers.
The back-to-back projectile launches highlight the challenges facing the Lee Jae Myung government even as he takes a series of measures aimed at reducing tensions and improving ties with his nuclear-armed neighbor.
“North Korea is trying to block any attempt by Seoul to portray the situation as a diplomatic achievement, while underscoring, both at home and abroad, that it is the one who has the upper hand on the Korean Peninsula,” said Lim Eul-chul, professor at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University.
The Kim regime has largely ignored the overtures by Lee’s administration while urging Washington to recognize the country as a nuclear power.
With assistance from Shinhye Kang.
