Tensions on the Korean peninsula had recently increased again. The leadership in Pyongyang threatened to shoot down US spy planes. Now North Korea has apparently fired another missile.
North Korea has launched a ballistic missile, South Korea says. The missile, of unknown type, was fired into the Sea of Japan (Korean: East Sea), the South Korean General Staff said. No further details were initially given.
UN decisions ban the widely isolated country from any launch of ballistic missiles. Depending on the design, these can be equipped with a nuclear warhead.
launch from spy planes threatened
North Korea had previously threatened to shoot down US spy planes in its airspace. With such flights, the US Air Force risks an “accident” such as the “crashes of strategic reconnaissance aircraft,” said a spokesman for the North Korean Ministry of Defense, as reported by the North Korean state news agency KCNA.
The sister of ruler Kim Jong Un, Kim Yo Jong, said such a machine had twice entered the airspace over the exclusive economic zone but was driven out. The United States and South Korea have denied North Korea’s allegations and warned the country to refrain from actions and rhetoric that escalated tensions.
Tensions continue to mount
Pyongyang also criticized the planned stationing of a US nuclear submarine in South Korea. This threatens to bring the situation on the Korean peninsula closer to the “threshold of a nuclear conflict”.
Washington signed an agreement with Seoul in April to strengthen South Korea’s nuclear shield. For the first time in decades, a US submarine equipped with nuclear missiles is to make a stop in South Korea. A specific date for the project was not given.
Military tensions on the Korean peninsula have recently increased. The communist leadership in Pyongyang has repeatedly threatened a military escalation in the region.