NKorea leader Kim supervised missile tests

It was the first time in six months for North Korea to launch missiles into Japan’s EEZ.

Though the North faces technical challenges in developing nuclear weapons, including the creation of a compact warhead, Pyongyang is “working on its own schedule toward developing ICBMs, which are an important step in obtaining nuclear weapons capable of reaching the USA”, said Park Hwee-rhak, head of the graduate school of politics and leadership at South Korea’s Kookmin University.

But the successful launch of a ballistic missile test on February 11, the first since Trump took office, and claims by North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un that his country was close to testing an intercontinental ballistic missile, has put the US on edge. Japan announced that three of the four missiles fell in its exclusive economic zone, and one came within 250 kilometers of Japanese land. “North Korea’s nuclear and missile capabilities have really improved, and they are becoming more hard to predict”. Approximately 17,000 USA forces participated with ROK forces in last year’s Foal Eagle and Key Resolve, two training exercises which usually begin in the same month.

“The DPRK’s provocations only serve to increase the global community’s resolve to counter the DPRK’s prohibited weapons of mass destruction programs”, said State Department spokesman Mark Toner.

There have been widespread worries that the North will conduct an ICBM test that, when perfected, could in theory reach the USA mainland.

The launch was condemned by the United Nations for violating resolutions that ban the use of missile technology.

But U.S. and South Korean officials said there were no indications the latest tests involved ICBMs, a weapon the U.S. fears could be eventually used to strike on its soil.

Last year, North Korea tested its Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missile eight times, with only one success.

Seoul and Washington launched the annual Foal Eagle exercises last week, with the North’s military warning a day later of “merciless nuclear counter-action” against enemy forces.

The launch on Monday happened as the United States and South Korea were conducting their annual joint military exercise.

They were launched from the Tongchang-ri region near the reclusive North’s border with China, according to South Korean military spokesman Roh Jae-cheon.

“They (are) making it clear that as long as the United States continues these exercises, North Korea will keep taking steps to bolster their deterrent”, Jeffrey Lewis, Adjunct Professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, told CNN. “It is an extremely unsafe action”, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in the Japanese Diet.

The programme appeared to be successful, as several of the North’s rockets and missiles failed soon after launch.

But the launches also occurred as China’s top political brass are meeting in Beijing for the annual legislative sessions, a sensitive time of the year, that Beijing does not like disturbed.

“We should quickly finish the deployment of THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) deployment and acquire a defense system against North Korea’s nuclear bombs and missiles”, he added.

The U.S.is reportedly engaging in a cyber warfare campaign against North Korea’s missile program. South Korea’s military detected the launch at 7:36 a.m.

North Korea denounced the exercises, which it considers a pre-text for an invasion, and warned it was ready to retaliate.

But an unidentified spokeswoman for the North’s General Staff of the Korean People’s Army said Pyongyang’s reaction to the drills would be the toughest ever.

Pyongyang has staged a series of missile test-launches of various ranges in recent months.

North Korea has fired a projectile into the Sea of Japan, which is also known as the East Sea, according to a South Korean Defense Ministry official.