The incident that occurred on the first day of January follows the shooting of three ballistic missiles the day before in the direction of South Korea.
MO12345lemonde with AFP
An additional shot marking the absence of any truce. North Korea proceeded on Sunday 1 er January to a short-range ballistic missile shot, the South Korean army reported the same day, cited by the South Korean agency Yonhap.
This first shot on the first day of 2023 came from the Yongseong district in the capital Pyongyang and landed in the Japanese Sea, said Yonhap, quoting the South Korean staff. The day before, New Year’s Eve day, North Korea had already launched three ballistic missiles towards South Korea.
The North Korean official press also said on Sunday that leader Kim Jong-Un had ordered the development of new intercontinental ballistic missiles and the massive production of tactical nuclear weapons in order to counter threats from the United States and South Korea.
These comments, made at the assembly of the ruling workers’ party, were relayed in the wake of the new shot. Kim Jong-Un stressed the need to strengthen the North Korean nuclear arsenal and to ensure “overwhelming” military power in order to protect the sovereignty and security of the country, said the official news agency KCNA. He accused Washington and Seoul of orchestrating a “conspiracy” to “isolate and stifle” North Korea.
increased tensions
Military tensions in the Korean peninsula have increased sharply in 2022, North Korea performing trials almost every month, including the shooting of its most advanced intercontinental missile.
This first North Korean shooting of 2023 also follows the foray for five North Korean drones in southern airspace at the start of last week. This North Korean foray was the first incident of this type in five years and gave rise to apologies from the Minister of Defense of Seoul after the failure of his aviation, who failed to shoot down a single drone despite the ‘Sending about twenty hunters for a mission that lasted five hours.