Tension in East Asia has risen yet once more after the United States and South Korea, responding to North Korea’s display of missile Sunday, fired ballistic missiles into the sea a day later in an exhibition of force that has extended a provoking dash in weapons demonstrations.
Sunday’s display was Pyongyang’s 18th round of missile tests this year alone, a stripe that included the North’s first launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles or ICBMs in nearly five years.
The North Korean state media have thus far been silent on Sunday’s launches, which came after the US aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan concluded a three-day naval drill with South Korea in the Philippine Sea last weekend.
It was apparently their first joint drill involving a carrier since November 2017, with Washington and Seoul moving to upgrade their defense exercises in the face of Pyongyang’s warnings.
North Korea has long denounced the allies’ combined military exercises as invasion run-through which the former often countered with its own missile drills, including short-range launches in 2016 and 2017 that replicated nuclear attacks on South Korean ports and US military facilities in Japan.
Hours soon after Pyongyang’s launches, Tokyo and Washington conducted a joint ballistic missile exercise aimed at showing latter’s “rapid response capability” and “strong determination” to counter any clear writing on the wall.
And then Washington and Seoul did live-fire exercise in an undisclosed location south of the Demilitarized Zone that separates North Korea and South Korea, following Pyongyang’s Sunday missile display, which involved eight Army Tactical Missile System missiles – one American and seven South Korean – fired into the Northeast Asian country’s waters across 10 minutes following notifications for air and maritime safety.
Certainly, the rigid nervousness in the Korean peninsula has notched a higher line, which may not be paid attention to by some – although such tension can put East Asia and Southeast Asia, including the Philippines, in a state of deep anxiety.
The South Korean military has said the comeback launches were aimed at demonstrating the ability of the allies to respond swiftly and accurately to North Korea’s attacks.
On Sunday, Seoul’s armed forces detected North Korea firing eight short range missiles over 35 minutes from at least four different locations, including from western and eastern coastal areas and two inland areas north of and near Pyongyang in what appeared to be a single-day record for the country’s ballistic launches.
Pyongyang’s 38-year-old Kim Jong Un, in the eyes of allies, has been pushing peril aimed at cementing his nation’s status as a nuclear power and negotiating economic and security concessions from a position of strength.
But Seoul and Washington were quick on the draw as they conducted a similar live-fire exercise following Pyongyang’s previous ballistic launches last month, which involved an ICBM flown on a medium-range trajectory and two short-range weapons.
The tests came as the 79-year-old US President Joe Biden wrapped up his trip to South Korea and Japan, where he reaffirmed his country’s commitment to defend both allies.
