SEOUL – Seoul’s military said North Korea fired a volley of short-range ballistic missiles early Tuesday. It was North Korea’s second launch in recent days, and the launch came hours earlier. Americans were going to vote. For the new president.
North Korea became nuclear-armed last week test fired It is said to be the most advanced and powerful solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). This was Kim Jong Un’s first weapons test since taking office. US and Ukrainian officials condemn About Russia sending soldiers to support ongoing full-scale military operations invasion of ukraine.
north koreaUnder growing international pressure to withdraw troops from Russia, the South Korean government said on Tuesday that thousands of soldiers would move into Russia’s Kursk region, which Ukrainian forces entered several months ago, although it denies deploying them. It warned that it was being deployed to front-line areas including .
Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected “several short-range ballistic missiles” launched into waters east of the Korean Peninsula around 7:30 a.m. Tuesday (5:30 p.m. ET Monday). . The missile flew about 348 miles, and South Korea’s military said it tracked the launch in real time while sharing information with the Japanese government and Washington.
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He added, “In preparation for additional launches, our military is strengthening surveillance and vigilance.” Meanwhile, the State Department in Washington announced approval of a new military aid package worth almost $5 billion on Monday, with South Korea set to receive more U.S. help in monitoring North Korea’s missile launches.
The package includes approval for an estimated total of four E-7 Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) aircraft, 10 jet engines, and other systems and support elements to deliver aircraft early warning and control systems to South Korea. Contains the possibility of selling. The cost is $4.92 billion.
The early warning and control aircraft, known as Wedgetail, will allow South Korea to detect missiles and other threats more quickly and from longer ranges than ground-based radar systems.
“This proposed sale will strengthen South Korea’s intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) and aircraft early warning and control capabilities, improving South Korea’s ability to respond to current and future threats,” the State Department said. “It will also improve the interoperability of the Korean Air Force’s command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR) with the United States.”
On Sunday, South Korea, Japan and the United States held a joint air exercise involving U.S. B-1B bombers, South Korean F-15K and KF-16 fighter jets, and Japan’s F-2 fighter jets in response to an intercontinental ballistic missile launch. was carried out. Such joint exercises infuriate North Korea, which views them as rehearsals for invasion.
US Air Force/South Korean Ministry of Defense/AP News
Han Kwon-hee of the South Korean Defense Industry Research Association told AFP that North Korea’s launch was a “direct response to last weekend’s trilateral air exercise.” “Given that it was a short-range missile salvo, it shows that North Korea not only has long-range missiles that can reach the United States, but also short-range missiles that can target all bases in South Korea and Japan. There will be.”
Kim Yo JongThe country’s leader’s sister and chief spokesperson said the U.S.-South Korea-Japan exercises were “a behavioral demonstration of the most hostile and dangerous aggressiveness of our adversaries against our country.”
In a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency on Tuesday, he said the exercise “completely proves the legitimacy and urgency of the course we have chosen and implemented to increase our nuclear capabilities.” said.
South Korea has long accused nuclear-armed North Korea of sending weapons to help fight Kiev, and Kim signed a mutual defense pact with Russian President Vladimir Putin in June. Since then, North Korea has claimed that it is moving to deploy its soldiers en masse.
“More than 10,000 North Korean soldiers are currently in RussiaAnd we assess that a significant portion of them are deployed in frontline areas, including Kursk,” South Korean Ministry of Defense spokesperson Chung Ha-gyu said on Tuesday.
Seoul, a major arms exporter, said: Considering whether to send weapons directly to Ukraine It responded with a long-standing domestic policy that prevented it from contributing weapons to active conflicts, something it had previously resisted.
Leif Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, said that due to the recent spate of nuclear tests, North Korea believes that Russia’s contribution of weapons and troops to the war in Ukraine will not deter military activities closer to the country. “This shows that there is no such thing.” “On the contrary, cooperation with Russia appears to enable blatant violations of UN Security Council resolutions.”
U.S. Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations Robert Wood on Monday condemned North Korea’s pursuit of its ballistic missile program and said Russia and China were preventing the United Nations from holding Pyongyang accountable.
China and Russia have “repeatedly sheltered North Korea, contributed to the normalization of tests, and encouraged North Korea to further violate Security Council sanctions and resolutions,” the statement said, referring to North Korea by its official name.
Speaking in Moscow on Tuesday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko said North Korea’s missile tests were a legitimate response to US “provocations,” according to Russia’s state-run TASS news agency.
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