North Korea launches more missiles and increases tension in the area

Seoul (EFE) tension that exists in the peninsula.

The warning paints a worrying horizon at a time when Seoul and Washington prepare their great spring maneuvers, Freedom shield, which will take place next month.

The progress shown by North Korea in recent years now allows it to respond to every movement in the south of the peninsula, something that it made clear in 2022 by carrying out around fifty missile launches, a record number.

With both sides pulling the strings to an unprecedented level and unwilling to show weakness or compromise, experts insist the chances of a fatal miscalculation are increasing.
Added to the equation is the increasingly heated debate over whether South Korea should also acquire nuclear weapons.
Following the latest missiles launched by the regime, the ruling People’s Power Party (PPP) urged Seoul to seize atomic bombs so that it would have the ability to make “North Korea never able to rise again if it thinks of it.” use nuclear weapons on the peninsula” and thus achieve a deterrent effect.

large caliber rocket launcher

Pyongyang fired two projectiles from a large-caliber rocket launcher into the Sea of ​​Japan on Thursday, traveling more than 300 kilometers before hitting the water.

This artillery team, which fires 600-millimeter projectiles capable of maneuvering before hitting the target and which Seoul classifies as short-range ballistic missiles (SRBM), was released on New Year’s Eve by the regime and at its presentation by the North Korean leader himself , Kim Jong-un, assured that he is capable of carrying tactical nuclear warheads.

The North Korean media insisted today on this last point, assuring that it is a weapon capable of carrying out a “tactical nuclear attack” and that four projectiles like those fired on Monday are capable of destroying an air base.

The message is not trivial; If on Saturday the regime wanted to show that it has the capacity to issue an emergency order and fire an intercontinental missile like the Hwasong-15, capable of reaching any point on the planet except for South America, today it insinuated that it is capable of destroying South Korean air bases such as that of Cheongju.

With its flight range, the projectiles fired today could have easily reached Cheongju, an installation 110 kilometers south of Seoul and 150 kilometers from the inter-Korean border that houses F-35 fighters such as those used yesterday by Seoul and Washington in maneuvers that sought to intimidate Pyongyang. after the intercontinental missile on Saturday and in which two American B-1 strategic bombers also participated.

The North Korean Army demonstrated today its ability “to counter the US and South Korean air forces by boasting about its air superiority,” the KCNA news agency said.

Warning from Kim Yo Jong

In a statement also published today by KCNA, the sister of the North Korean leader, Kim Yo-jong, said that the frequency with which Pyongyang will launch missiles into the Pacific Ocean will depend “on the nature of the actions of US forces.”

Kim asserted that the regime is aware “that the movements of US forces with strategic strike capabilities are recently accelerating on the Korean Peninsula.”

“We are carefully analyzing the influence this will have on the security of our state, and we are going to make it an established fact once again to take equivalent countermeasures if judged to be a direct or indirect threat,” he added.

For its part, the South Korean military assured that it is ready to “respond overwhelmingly to any North Korean provocation” and vowed to maintain “a firm defense posture based on security cooperation between the Republic of Korea (official name of the South) , USA and Japan”.

The mention of Tokyo, something that the South Korean Armed Forces rarely do in their communiqués, underlines the rapprochement between the two neighbors – whose relations have gone through their worst moment in recent years – in terms of security in light of the worsening situation in the peninsula.