North Korea launched four short-range ballistic missiles into the Yellow Sea (called the West Sea in the two Koreas) on Saturday.according to the South Korean military, a provocation that coincides with large-scale combined air exercises by South Korea and the United States.
The launches were detected between 11:32 and 11:59 (2:32 and 2:59 GMT on Saturday) and were launched from Tongrim county in the northwest of the country, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said. .
The missiles flew about 130 kilometers with an apogee of 20 and a maximum speed of Mach 5. (five times the speed of sound), added the JCS, after North Korea launched between Wednesday and Thursday around 30 projectiles.
One of them, a long-range ballistic missile (ICBM), apparently failed in mid-flight as it was about to fly over Japan, while another short-range missile landed very close to South Korean territorial waters, something that had never happened before.
(Keep reading: China and Germany reject the use of nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war).
Pyongyang’s reaction this Saturday comes after Washington and Seoul decided to extend until this Saturday some combined exercises called ‘Vigilant storm’ in which some 240 aircraft participated.
This is the largest combined South Korean-US air exercise since 2017 and includes the mobilization of F-15, F-16, EA-18G fighters (the version of the F-18 fighter-bomber adapted for electronic warfare scenarios) , F-35A and F-35B, which unlike the F-35A can perform short takeoffs and vertical takeoffs and landings.
Tension on the peninsula is reaching unprecedented heights in the face of repeated North Korean weapons tests, allied maneuvers and the possibility that, as indicated by satellites, Kim Jong-un’s regime is now ready to conduct its first nuclear test since 2017.
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EFE
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