North Korea fires another missile, flies warplanes near border
The Hindu
South Korea says North Korea has launched a ballistic missile toward its eastern waters
North Korea early on October 14 launched a short-range ballistic missile toward its eastern waters and flew warplanes near the border with South Korea, further raising animosities triggered by the North’s recent barrage of weapons tests.
South Korea’s military also said it detected North Korea firing about 170 rounds of artillery from eastern and western coastal areas near the border region and that the shells fell inside maritime buffer zones the two countries had established under a 2018 military agreement on reducing tensions.
The North Korean moves suggest it would keep up a provocative run of weapons tests designed to bolster its nuclear capability for now. Some experts say North Korea would eventually want the United States and others to accept it as a nuclear state, lifting economic sanctions and making other concessions.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement the missile lifted off from the North's capital region at 1.49 a.m. Friday (1649 GMT Thursday; 12:49 p.m. EDT Thursday).
While none of the North Korean artillery shells fell inside South Korean territorial waters, the Joint Chiefs of Staff described the firings as a clear violation of the 2018 agreement, which created buffer zones along land and sea boundaries and no-fly zones above the border to prevent clashes.
Friday’s ballistic launch extended a record number of missile demonstrations by North Korea this year as it exploits the distraction created by Russia’s war on Ukraine to accelerate its arms development and increase pressure on Washington and its Asian allies.
In response to North Korea’s intensifying testing activity and hostility, South Korea on Friday imposed unilateral sanctions on the North for the first time in five years, targeting 15 North Korean individuals and 16 organizations suspected of involvement in illicit activities to finance North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile program.
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