North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into its East Sea early Wednesday in what appeared to be a statement as the United States deployed a nuclear-armed submarine to South Korea for the first time in decades.
It comes just two days after White House national security adviser Jack Sullivan said he had been “concerned for some time” about more tests, though there were no “indications” of an imminent launch.
The launches came as the US-led UN command tried to secure the release of US soldiers who had defected to North Korea from the South Korean side of a border village on Tuesday afternoon.
Private 2nd Class Travis King, in his early 20s, had just been released from a prison in South Korea where he had been held on assault charges.
Instead of getting on a plane to be taken back to Fort Bliss, Texas, he left and joined a tour of the Korean border village of Panmunjom, where he ran across the border, US officials say.
North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into its East Sea early Wednesday in what appeared to be a statement as the United States deployed a nuclear-armed submarine to South Korea for the first time in decades.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said that between 3:30 a.m. and 3:46 a.m. North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles from an area near the capital Pyongyang that flew about 341 miles before landing in waters east of the Korean peninsula.
Details of the flight were consistent with the Japanese military’s assessment, which said the missiles landed outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone and there were no immediate reports of damage to ships or aircraft in the affected area.
The North Korean missile’s flight distance roughly matches the distance between Pyongyang and the South Korean port city of Busan, where the USS Kentucky arrived on Tuesday afternoon in the first visit by a US nuclear-armed submarine to South Korea since the 1980s.
Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada told reporters that the North Korean missiles traveled at a low trajectory, reached a maximum altitude of about 31 miles and may have displayed ‘irregular maneuvers’ in flight.
Japan has previously used similar language to describe the flight characteristics of a North Korean weapon modeled after Russia’s Iskander missile, which travels at low altitudes and is designed to be maneuvered in flight to improve its chances of evading missile defenses.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff condemned the North Korean launch as a ‘major provocation’ that threatens peace and stability in the region and said the South Korean and US militaries were closely monitoring the North for further weapons activities.
Wednesday’s launches marked the North’s first ballistic activity since July 12, when it flight-tested a new solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile that demonstrated its potential range to reach deep into the US mainland.
That launch was overseen by the country’s authoritarian leader Kim Jong Un, who has vowed to bolster his country’s nuclear war capabilities in the face of expanding US-South Korean military activity, which he blames for worsening the security environment on the Korean Peninsula.
Tensions in the region have risen in recent months as North Korean weapons tests and joint US-South Korean military exercises have picked up pace.
Since early 2022, North Korea has tested nearly 100 missiles while attempting to demonstrate its dual capability to launch nuclear strikes on both South Korea and the continental United States.
In response, the allies increased their joint military training and agreed to increase the deployment of US strategic assets such as long-range bombers, aircraft carriers and submarines in the region.
Periodic visits by US nuclear ballistic missile-capable submarines to South Korea was one of several agreements reached between US President Joe Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol in April in response to North Korea’s growing nuclear threat.
They agreed to further expand joint military exercises, strengthen joint planning for nuclear contingencies and establish a bilateral nuclear advisory group, which held its inaugural meeting in Seoul on Tuesday.
The moves were intended to ease South Korean concerns about North Korea’s growing nuclear weapons arsenal and quell voices within the South calling for the country to continue its own nuclear weapons program.
US Forces Korea said in a statement that Kentucky’s arrival in Busan reflects the US’s commitment to ‘enhanced deterrence’, which refers to its assurance to defend its ally with full military capabilities, including nuclear.
The Ohio-class submarine can be armed with about 20 Trident II ballistic missiles with a range of 7,456 miles, according to the South Korean military.
Moon Keun-sik, a submarine expert who teaches at South Korea’s Kyunggi University, said, “The US can attack (North Korea) from anywhere in the world from this submarine.” ‘But there will likely be a backlash from North Korea and China as it deploys the world’s most secretive and threatening nuclear weapons on their doorstep.’
While some South Korean conservatives expressed disappointment that the Biden-Yoon meeting in April failed to agree on the deployment of US nuclear weapons or strategic assets in the South, deploying nuclear weapons at sea and on submarines “is actually a powerful deterrent in many ways.” said Duyeon Kim, senior analyst at the Washington Center for a New American Security.
“Deterrence is strengthened when the location of American strategic assets is unknown to the adversary until the adversary knows that these weapons exist,” Kim said.
Still, Seoul and Washington need to find the ‘sweet spot’ in terms of the visibility of America’s increased deterrence.
“Too much visibility of strategic assets can actually weaken deterrence effectiveness while too little can raise questions in Seoul about commitment,” Kim said.
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