In the past 12 days, North Korea has conducted six missile tests, not only violating UN resolutions, provoking international protests and alarming the population in parts of Japan. Seen as a provocation, the USA and South Korea then also fired missiles in the direction of the Sea of Japan in an increasingly tense situation. North Korea is now describing its missile tests of the past few days as a self-defense measure against a direct threat from the United States. “They served the security of our country and regional peace and did not threaten civil aviation or neighboring countries,” said the North Korean news agency KCNA, citing a spokesman for the aviation authority.
North Korea is responding to criticism from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which has condemned the missile tests as a serious security risk for international civil aviation. The US and South Korea held a joint naval exercise, which also involved an American aircraft carrier. the USS Ronald Reagan and accompanying warships had been relocated in response to North Korea’s missile launch towards Japan on Tuesday. It was the first time a North Korean missile had flown over the Japanese archipelago in almost five years. The deployment of warships represents one of the sharpest allied responses to a North Korean weapons test since 2017.
UN resolutions prohibit North Korea from testing ballistic missiles of any range, which, depending on the design, can also carry a nuclear warhead.