The launch comes as South Korea and the US conclude 12 days of amphibious naval joint military drills
\nWeb Desk
\nSEOUL
\nNorth Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles on Friday, the South\u2019s military said, the latest in a blitz of launches that Washington and Seoul have warned could culminate in Kim Jong Un conducting another nuclear test.
\nThe launch comes as South Korea and the US conclude 12 days of amphibious naval joint military drills, and just ahead of the Monday start of major combined air drills that will involve more than 200 US and South Korean fighter jets.
\nSuch drills infuriate Pyongyang, which sees them as rehearsals for invasion and has repeatedly justified its blitz of missile launches as necessary \u201ccountermeasures\u201d to what it deems US aggression.
\nSouth Korea\u2019s military said it had \u201cdetected two ballistic missiles fired from the Tongchon area in Gangwon between 1159 (0259 GMT) and 1218,\u201d it said, referring to a province on North Korea\u2019s east coast.
\n\u201cOur military has increased monitoring and surveillance and is maintaining a full readiness posture in close coordination with the US,\u201d Seoul\u2019s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.
\nWith talks long-stalled, tensions on the peninsula are at their highest point in years, with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last month declaring his country an \u201cirreversible\u201d nuclear power, effectively ending negotiations over his banned weapons programmes.
\nOfficials in Washington and Seoul have been warning for months that Kim is ready to conduct another nuclear test, which would be the country\u2019s seventh \u2014 and the first since 2017.
\nOn Tuesday, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said it appeared Pyongyang had \u201calready completed preparations for a seventh nuclear test\u201d, he told parliament.
\nOn Wednesday, the United States, Japan and South Korea said that a North Korean nuclear test would warrant an \u201cunprecedentedly strong response\u201d, vowing unity between the regional security allies.
\nNorth Korea has this month fired multiple artillery barrages into a maritime \u201cbuffer zone\u201d that was set up in 2018 as a way of reducing tensions with the South during a period of ill-fated diplomacy.
\nIt also announced it had staged what it called \u201ctactical nuclear drills\u201d that simulated showering the South with nuke-capable missiles.
\nAnd on Monday, a North Korean ship reportedly crossed the two countries\u2019 flashpoint maritime border, prompting an exchange of warning shots.
\nNorth Korean state media has also recently carried a rare series of statements from the country\u2019s military condemning the \u201cenemy\u2019s war drills\u201d and calling for them to stop.<\/p>\n
\u2018Provocations\u2019
\nIt is all part of a dramatic increase this year in what Seoul calls \u201cprovocations\u201d by the North, including conducting its longest-ever missile launch by distance, which overflew Japan and prompted rare evacuation warnings.
\nIn response, Seoul has conducted live-fire drills, and the US re-deployed a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to the region to conduct large-scale trilateral drills also involving Tokyo.
\nAnalysts say Pyongyang\u2019s confidence that gridlock at the United Nations will protect it from further sanctions has emboldened it to step up its weapons testing.
\nAt a recent UN Security Council meeting to discuss Pyongyang\u2019s launch over Japan, North Korea\u2019s longtime ally and economic benefactor China blamed Washington for provoking the spate of missile tests.
\nThe Security Council has been divided on responding to Pyongyang\u2019s nuclear ambitions for months, with Russia and China on the sympathetic side and the rest of the council pushing for punishment.
\nKim has made developing tactical nukes \u2014 smaller, battlefield-ready weapons \u2014 a priority, and Seoul recently warned the North could be preparing to conduct multiple consecutive nuclear tests as part of this drive<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The launch comes as South Korea and the US conclude 12 days of amphibious naval joint military drills Web Desk SEOUL North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles on Friday, the South\u2019s military said, the latest in a blitz of launches that Washington and Seoul have warned could culminate in Kim Jong Un conducting another […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292239,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-292221","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n