North Korea Launches Suspected Ballistic Missile, South Says

Soo-Hyang Choi, Bloomberg News

A news broadcast plays file footage of a North Korean missile test, at a railway station in Seoul on April 2. Photographer: Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Images , Photographer: Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Images

(Bloomberg) -- North Korea fired short-range ballistic missiles Monday in its latest show of force just days after a US ambassador visited the demilitarized zone dividing the two countries.

Multiple short-range ballistic missiles were launched from Pyongyang and flew 300 kilometers (190 miles) toward waters off its east coast, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said. They didn’t immediately confirm how many projectiles were fired. Japan’s national broadcaster NHK said a suspected ballistic missile likely splashed down in waters outside the country’s exclusive economic zone.

“We strongly condemn North Korea’s missile launch as a clear provocation that seriously threatens the peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula,” the South Korean military said in a text message to reporters.

This would be the fourth launch of ballistic missiles from Kim Jong Un’s regime this year. The firing of missiles serves as a reminder of the threat Pyongyang poses following US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield’s recent visit to South Korea and Japan. They can also provide an opportunity for Pyongyang to try out equipment and showcase weapons for Russia.

During Thomas-Greenfield’s visit, the envoy sought ways to keep alive sanctions monitoring on Pyongyang after Russia vetoed a measure to extend a UN Security Council Panel of Experts that has acted as a watchdog for about 15 years.

Read more: US Says Russia’s Arms Trade With North Korea Violates Sanctions

Monday’s launch was likely a show of force using existing developed weapons, according to Hong Min, a researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification.

“North Korea’s super-large multiple rocket launcher is a system that could target South Korea’s capital as well as key airfields and military facilities in the southern region,” Hong said.

South Korea’s Yonhap News said Monday’s missiles could be the North’s 600 millimeter rockets fired from its “super-large multiple rocket launcher.”

Known as KN-25, the short-range ballistic missile has a range of about 380 kilometers and was first tested in 2019. North Korea last tested the launcher in March in what Seoul said could be a way for Pyongyang to market its newest missiles to Moscow.

Read more: Kim Jong Un Faces Annihilation in Most Korea War Scenarios

Among recent missile launches the North Korean leader oversaw the test of a new ballistic missile on April 2. The country’s state media said that missile was designed to deploy a hypersonic glide vehicle that can deliver a nuclear payload using high speed maneuvers to evade interceptors.

Kim has been using the tests to show he has a variety of methods to launch a nuclear strike. This includes having his navy fire off missiles as well as deploying a new type of underwater drone that Pyongyang says would be able to deliver a nuclear strike. Weapons experts doubt the claim.

Kim guided military drills in March that included fire from an artillery unit capable of hitting Seoul, stepping up threats against his neighbor that coincided with it holding joint military training with the US.

Seoul says Pyongyang is also readying to launch another spy satellite in the coming days after South Korea deployed its second domestically made spy satellite in orbit on April 8 from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

--With assistance from Jon Herskovitz.

(Updates with suspected missile type)