North Korea Tests Ballistic Missiles Amid Tension

By IndraStra Global News Team

Cover Image Attribute: On September 29, 2022 (Thursday) in a Seoul train station, a TV shows a North Korean missile test. On October 1, 2022 (Saturday) morning was the North's sixth and seventh ballistic missile launch last week. / Source: JIJI Press Japan

From September 25 to October 4, under Kim Jong-un's leadership, North Korea tested the range of ballistic missiles by firing them further than ever before. As a result, one of the missiles (launched yesterday) flew over Japan for the first time in five years, prompting the Japanese government to warn its citizens to take cover.

It is the North's first missile launch over Japan since 2017. These launches came hours before and after a visit by US Vice President Kamala Harris to South Korea, during which she emphasized the "ironclad" United States commitment to the security of its Asian allies. It was the latest in an escalating cycle of muscle flexing.

Before it crashed into the Pacific Ocean, the Hwasong-12 (most likely), an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), had traveled 4,500 kilometers or 2,800 miles from its launch site at Mupyong-ri near North Korea's central border with China. This distance was sufficient to reach the island territory of Guam, which is part of the United States. Apart from the Hwasong-12, North Korea also has three intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of flying over Japan, though these have not been tested "to their full range yet."

In response to the test, the US and South Korean warplanes practiced bombing a target in the Yellow Sea, and fighter jets from the United States and Japan also carried out joint drills over the Sea of Japan, the US military said.

Many people who keep an eye on North Korea believe that the Kim regime is working on a long-term strategy to outpace South Korea in an arms race and drive a wedge between US allies. This strategy involves the development of weapons such as tactical nuclear warheads and submarine-launched ballistic missiles.

Parallel Development

On October 5, South Korea issued an apology following the failure of a missile it fired in response to the North Korean tests. Several hours after the North fired an IRBM over northern Japan, the United States and South Korea participated in a live-fire exercise that was intended to demonstrate the allies' superior military might. 

Instead, it resulted in a humiliating failure when a ballistic missile with a short range called a Hyumoo-2 crashed to the ground inside an air force base near the city of Gangneung on the South Korean coast. According to media reports, the noise caused by the missile and the subsequent fire led some residents of Gangneung to believe that their northern neighbors had launched an attack. However, the missile did not explode. There were no reports of injuries.

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