South Korea confirms four new North Korean short-range missile launches

5 (EUROPE PRESS)

The South Korean Army announced this Saturday the new launches of four North Korean short-range missiles over the Yellow Sea between China and Korea, the latest in a series of frequent ballistic launches that began this week.

The projectiles traveled a distance of 130 kilometers with a peak located about 20 kilometers high, according to the initial analysis released by the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) of South Korea.

The missiles left from Tongrim county, in North Pyongyan province, between 11:32 (05:32 in Spain) and 11:59 (05:59 in Spain), according to the military statement collected by the official South Korean news agency Yonhap.

These new launches join the six missiles launched on Thursday, including at least one intercontinental missile, a day after the launches of at least 25 other missiles into the Sea of ​​Japan, of which one flew over the maritime demarcation line between the two Koreas for the first time since the war.

The launches take place in the middle of the first large-scale air exercise in almost five years between the United States and South Korea, which has mobilized some 240 planes, in a drill that has been harshly criticized by the North Korean authorities as a show of force and a security threat.

The launches coincide, in fact, with the deployment for the first time since 2017 of two B-1B strategic bombers to the ‘Vigilant Storm’ exercise along with four South Korean F-35A stealth fighters and four US F-16 fighters. according to the JCS.

The deployment of these strategic bombers, according to the South Korean General Staff, is “a demonstration of Washington’s firm commitment to the extended deterrence strategy and the combined defense posture of both allied countries.”