The South Korean military will increase cooperation with the US and Japan, including the deployment of “US strategic assets”. This announcement by South Korea comes after North Korea under Kim Jong-un launched two short-range ballistic missiles on Sunday.
These missile tests, which violate United Nations Security Council resolutions, will tighten sanctions on North Korea, worsen public well-being and make the regime “very unstable,” South Korea’s National Security Council said after an emergency meeting attended by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was informed.
The North Korean missiles were launched between 1:48 a.m. and 1:58 a.m. local time from the Munchon area in Kangwon province, the General Staff Office said in an email. In the past two weeks, the People’s Republic, led by Kim Jong-un, has already launched eight more missiles. The Aircraft Carrier Group USS Ronald Reagan made a turn after one of those missiles flew over Japan. The group returned to the waters off the Korean Peninsula and jointly held missile defense drills with naval forces from Japan and South Korea on Thursday. The incidents are reminiscent of the fall of 2017, when Kim Jong-un’s regime launched its largest barrage of long-range missiles and detonated a nuclear bomb, triggering new UN sanctions.
The rockets launched on Sunday flew about 350 kilometers and reached an altitude of 90 kilometers with a top speed of Mach 5, the statement said. South Korean and US forces have been placed on heightened alert, according to Gen. Kim Seung-kyum and Gen. Paul LaCamera, commander of the South Korean-US Combined Forces Commandin the statement.
Pyongyang said on Monday (local time) that its nuclear tactical unit held drills from September 25 to October 9 to check the country’s deterrence and counterattack capabilities and send a grave warning to its enemies. The North Korean head of state led the exercises and says, according to the official news agency KCNA, that he sees no need to hold talks. Kim’s Jong-un regime over the weekend described the presence of the aircraft carrier group as “extremely worrying” and said the North Korean forces took the deployment seriously. North Korea has for decades opposed joint South Korean-US military exercises, which it describes as a prelude to an invasion. According to Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s recent missile tests were a reaction to the fact that the United States brought a nuclear arsenal to the region with the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier group.
The carrier group had already been in the area in late September, around the time US Vice President Kamala Harris was visiting Japan and South Korea. During her visit to the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, Harris warned North Korea about escalating tensions and urged Kim Jong-un to return to stalled nuclear disarmament talks.