North Korea launched an “unidentified projectile,” the South Korean army said on Tuesday, less than a week after Pyongyang claimed to have fired a hypersonic missile. The projectile was fired into the sea east of the Korean peninsula, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement, without providing further details. The shooting was also reported by the Japanese Coast Guard, who spoke of a “Object resembling a ballistic missile”.
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Last week, six countries, including the United States and Japan, urged North Korea to end its “Destabilizing actions” ahead of a closed-door meeting of the United Nations Security Council on the earlier firing of a hypersonic missile by Pyongyang. In 2021, North Korea, equipped with nuclear weapons, claimed to have successfully tested a new type of sea-to-surface ballistic missile (SLBM), a long-range cruise missile, a piece of weaponry launched from a train and what she described as a hypersonic warhead.
Tuesday’s essay comes as Pyongyang refused to respond to US calls for talks. At a meeting of the ruling party in the country, leader Kim Jong Un – behind the rapid advances in the country’s military technology, at the cost of international sanctions – pledged to continue building military capacity, without mention the United States.