North Korea launched at least one unidentified ballistic missile on Saturday February 18, the South Korean military announced. This one headed ” towards [la] East Sea »said the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff, referring to the name given to the Sea of Japan.
The North Korean missile apparently crashed into Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said. “It seems that the ballistic missile fired by North Korea fell in Japan’s EEZ, west of Hokkaido”, Mr. Kishida told reporters. A Japanese defense ministry official previously said the missile was expected to land about 200 km west of Oshima Island, off the northern island of Hokkaido.
The firing comes as the United States and South Korea prepare to conduct simulation exercises, to be held next week in Washington, to discuss what to do if the missile is used. nuclear weapon by Pyongyang. The day before, North Korea threatened to react to the upcoming American-South Korean maneuvers, seeing in them preparations for an armed conflict. If the two allies carry out these exercises, “they will face countermeasures (…) strong and unprecedented”a spokesman for Pyongyang’s diplomacy said in a statement.
Regain de tension
The year 2022 has been marked by a strong resurgence of tension on the peninsula. The parenthesis of relative appeasement initiated in 2018 by South Korean President Moon Jae-in (2017-2022), which was marked by the 2018 and 2019 summits between Kim Jong-un and the President of the United States, Donald Trump (2017-2021), seems definitively closed.
From the beginning of 2022, the leader of the North has called for “Building National Defense Capabilities”. The war in Ukraine, which started in February, and the election, in March 2022, of the conservative Yoon Seok-youl as President of South Korea have confirmed him in this choice. Pyongyang gives unwavering support to Moscow in its war against kyiv. The regime recognized Russia’s annexation of Ukrainian territories and reportedly supplied Moscow with 100,000 shells. In exchange, Vladimir Putin spoke of economic and military aid to the North.
The arrival of Yoon Seok-youl to power in Seoul, elected on the promise of a policy of firmness vis-à-vis the North, a strengthening of the alliance with the United States and a rapprochement with Japan, also convinced Pyongyang to harden its positions. All joint military maneuvers between the United States and South Korea infuriate Pyongyang, which sees them as a rehearsal for a possible invasion and has often responded with threats and drills from its side.