Seoul — North Korea fired a salvo of short-range ballistic missiles on Tuesday morning, the South Korean military announced. It was Pyongyang’s second launch in a few days and had taken place just hours before. Americans were ready to vote for a new president.

The North acquired nuclear weapons last week test shot what it said was its most advanced and powerful solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). It was Kim Jong Un’s first weapons test since his establishment. accused by American and Ukrainian officials to send soldiers to help support Russia’s large-scale efforts. invasion of Ukraine.

North Koreawhich has denied the deployment, is facing growing international pressure to withdraw its troops from Russia, with Seoul warning on Tuesday that thousands of troops were being deployed to frontline areas, including Russia’s Kursk region, in which Ukrainian troops have pushed months ago. .

Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said they detected the launch of “several short-range ballistic missiles” around 7:30 a.m. Tuesday (5:30 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday) in waters east of the Korean Peninsula. The missiles traveled about 248 miles and the South Korean military said it monitored the launch in real time while sharing information with Tokyo and Washington.

“In preparation for additional launches, our military has increased surveillance and vigilance,” the statement added. Meanwhile, Seoul is set to benefit from increased U.S. help in monitoring the North’s missile launches, with the State Department in Washington on Monday announcing approval of a new military aid package worth nearly of 5 billion dollars.

This package includes the potential sale of airborne warning and control systems to South Korea, with the approval of four E-7 airborne warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft, 10 jet engines and other systems and support elements, for an estimated total. cost $4.92 billion.

The early warning and control aircraft, known as Wedgetails, would allow South Korea to detect missiles and other threats faster and at greater ranges than ground-based radar systems.

“This proposed sale will enhance the Republic of Korea’s ability to address current and future threats by providing increased intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities as well as airborne early warning and control capabilities.” , the State Department said. “It will also increase the ROK Air Force’s command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) interoperability with the United States .”

On Sunday, South Korea, Japan and the United States conducted a joint air exercise involving a US B-1B bomber, South Korean F-15K and KF-16 fighter jets and Japanese F-2 jets, in response to the launch of the ICBM. Such joint exercises infuriate Pyongyang, which views them as rehearsals for an invasion.

Pyongyang called its latest launch “a direct response to the weekend’s trilateral air exercises”, Han Kwon-hee of the Korea Defense Industry Studies Association told AFP. “Given that this was a salvo of short-range missiles, the North indicates that it has not only long-range missiles capable of reaching the United States, but also short-range missiles to target all bases in South Korea and Japan.”

Kim Yo-Jongsister of the country’s leader and key spokesperson, called the exercises between the United States, South Korea and Japan “an action-based explanation of the most hostile and dangerous aggressive nature of the ‘enemy towards our Republic’.

In a statement released Tuesday by the official Korean Central News Agency, it said the exercise was “absolute proof of the validity and urgency of the line of strengthening nuclear forces that we have chosen and put into practice “.

Seoul has long accused the nuclear-armed North of sending weapons to help Moscow fight kyiv and says Pyongyang has moved to deploy troops en masse since Kim signed a mutual defense deal with the president Russian Vladimir Putin in June.

“More than 10,000 North Korean soldiers are currently in Russia“, and we estimate that a significant portion of them are deployed in front-line areas, including Kursk,” Jeon Ha-gyu, a spokesperson for the South Korean Defense Ministry, said Tuesday.

Seoul, a major arms exporter, said it examine the advisability of sending weapons directly to Ukraine in response, something it has previously resisted due to a long-standing domestic policy that prevents it from supplying weapons in active conflicts.

With its recent series of tests, “Pyongyang shows that its contribution of weapons and troops to Russia’s war in Ukraine does not restrict its military activities closer to home,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at the university. Ewha from Seoul. “On the contrary, cooperation with Moscow appears to enable blatant violations of UN Security Council resolutions.”

On Monday, Robert Wood, deputy US ambassador to the UN, criticized the progress of the North’s ballistic missile program and said Russia and China were preventing the UN from holding Pyongyang to account.

Beijing and Moscow “have repeatedly protected the DPRK, contributing to the normalization of these tests and encouraging the DPRK to further violate sanctions and resolutions of this Council,” he said, referring to the North by name. official.

Speaking in Moscow on Tuesday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko said North Korea’s missile tests were a justified reaction to US “provocations”, according to Russia’s official TASS news agency.

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