North Korea launches missiles again after US military exercises

O South Korea’s Joint Chiefs announced in a statement that they had detected, around 5:20 locals (Friday 21:20 in Lisbon), “several short-range ballistic missiles launched from the Wonsan region,” east, towards the Sea of Japan.

The information collected by Seoul and the U.S. intelligence services was transmitted to Japan, and it took the same source.

Pyongyang, which has nuclear weapons, had launched about ten ballistic missiles to the sea in August, just hours after American President Donald Trump declared that he would meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un before the end of the year.

These shots occurred after a reduced version of the annual joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States, and Trump ordered at the last moment to reduce the scale of the exercises.

The U.S. President surprised his close ally, South Korea, to consider that these annual exercises send “a totally inappropriate and hostile signal” to North Korea.

This time, these shots took place after South Korea, the United States and Japan held between Monday and Friday the “Freedom Edge” exercises in international waters situated to the east and south of the South Korean island of Jeju.

By the end of August, Pyongyang — who technically has been at war with the South since the 1950s — had denounced these maritime maneuvers, presented by Seoul as defensive in nature, claiming to represent a “threat” for North Korea and the region.

Pyongyang has always condemned joint exercises between the United States and South Korea, considering that these are trials for an invasion of its territory, and regularly launch missiles around the dates when these maneuvers take place.

North Korea is subject to heavy international sanctions due to nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles programmes.