North Korea fires missiles off east coast, South Korea says
North Korea has fired a flurry of short-range ballistic missiles into the sea off its east coast, South Korea's military has said, in what Seoul called a possible test of weapons intended for export.
North Korean forces launched the missiles from an area near the eastern port city of Wonsan between 8:10am (23:10 GMT on Wednesday) and 9:20am (00:20 GMT), South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Thursday.
The missiles flew up to 800km (500 miles) before landing in the Sea of Japan, the JSC said.
The launches are the fourth round of ballistic missile tests carried out by North Korea this year, after launches in January and March.
'Our military, under the strong South Korea-US combined defense posture, is closely monitoring various North Korean activities to prevent any misjudgment (by the North),' the JSC said in a statement.
Lee Sung Joon, a JSC spokesperson, said in a briefing that launches may have been to test the 'performance or flight stability' of planned missile exports.
Lee did not specify which country might receive the missiles, but Pyongyang has been a key backer of Russia in its war in Ukraine.
North Korea has sent missiles, artillery and some 15,000 soldiers to Russia to support its war effort, according to South Korea's National Intelligence Service.
About 4,700 North Korean soldiers have been killed or injured in fighting so far, according to the intelligence service.
Pyongyang last month acknowledged the deployment for the first time, with state media quoting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un saying his forces would help 'annihilate and wipe out the Ukrainian neo-Nazi occupiers and liberate the Kursk area in cooperation with the Russian armed forces'.
North Korea signed a landmark mutual defence treaty with Russia last year following a state visit to the reclusive country by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Thursday's missile launches also drew condemnation from Japan, with Japanese Defense Minister Nakatani Gen telling reporters that Tokyo had lodged a protest with Pyongyang.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Jazeera
15 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Trump: Putin says Russia will ‘have to' respond to Ukraine attacks
Russian President Vladimir Putin has told Donald Trump in a telephone conversation that Moscow would have to respond to the recent Ukrainian drone attacks, the US president said. Trump said on Wednesday that the two men 'discussed the attack on Russia's docked airplanes, by Ukraine, and also various other attacks that have been taking place by both sides.' Putin 'did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields', Trump said in a social media post. Al Jazeera's Kimberly Halkett said that Trump described his 85-minute phone call with Putin as 'a good conversation but not one that would lead to immediate peace'. 'You have to remember that Donald Trump, when he came into office, was very confident that he could end this war on day one, but here we are now in June and the fact is … this is far from resolved,' she said from the White House. Moscow said earlier on Wednesday that military options were 'on the table' for its response to Ukrainian attacks deep inside Russia and accused the West of being involved in them. Russia also urged the US and Britain to restrain Kyiv after the attacks, which Ukrainian officials have lauded as showing Kyiv can still fight back after more than three years of war. British and US officials have said they had no prior knowledge of the weekend attacks on Russian nuclear-capable long-range bombers. In his social media post, Trump said he and Putin also discussed Iran. Putin suggested he would participate in talks aimed at reaching a new nuclear deal with Tehran, Trump said. 'I stated to President Putin that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and, on this, I believe that we were in agreement,' Trump said. He accused Iran of 'slow-walking' decisions regarding the talks. Putin told Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian that Moscow was ready to help advance talks on a nuclear deal, the Kremlin said on Tuesday. But Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said earlier on Wednesday that Washington's proposal was against Tehran's national interests, amid sharp differences over whether Tehran can continue to enrich uranium.
Al Jazeera
21 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
UK prepares for war: How much will it cost?
The United Kingdom has announced a major investment in defence in response to a 'new era of threats' driven by 'growing Russian aggression'. The UK's Strategic Defence Review (SDR), unveiled on Monday, includes new investments in nuclear warheads, a fleet of new submarines and new munitions factories. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the SDR would bring the country to 'war-fighting readiness'. 'The threat we now face is more serious, more immediate and more unpredictable than at any time since the Cold War,' Starmer said as he delivered the review in Glasgow, Scotland. The SDR described Russia as an 'immediate and pressing' threat, and referred to China as a 'sophisticated and persistent challenge'. European nations have rushed to strengthen their armed forces in recent months, following Trump's repeated demands that Europe must shoulder more responsibility for its security. The defence review, the UK's first since 2021, was led by former NATO Secretary-General George Robertson. Among the 62 recommendations in the SDR, all have been accepted by the government. Starmer said the measures recommended in the review would bring 'fundamental changes' to the armed forces, including 'moving to war-fighting readiness', re-centring a 'NATO first' defence posture and accelerating innovation. 'Every part of society, every citizen of this country, has a role to play because we have to recognise that things have changed in the world of today,' he said. 'The front line, if you like, is here.' Based on the recommendations in the review, the government said it would boost stockpiles and weapons production capacity, which could be scaled up if needed. A total of 1.5 billion pounds ($2bn) will be dedicated to building 'at least six munitions and energetics factories', with plans to produce 7,000 long-range weapons. In turn, UK ammunitions spending – just one component of overall military spending – is expected to hit 6 billion pounds ($8.1bn) over the current parliamentary term, which ends in 2029. There are also plans to build up to 12 new attack submarines by the late 2030s as part of the AUKUS military alliance with Australia and the United States – equivalent to a new submarine every 18 months. This accounts for nearly half the projected spending outlined in the SDR. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) also said it would invest 15 billion pounds ($20.3bn) in its own nuclear warhead programme. The SDR recommended procuring new F-35 fighter jets and the Global Combat Aircraft Programme, a sixth-generation fighter produced jointly with Japan and Italy. The target size of the army will remain roughly the same, but the SDR recommended a slight increase in the number of regular soldiers 'if funding allows'. There are currently about 71,000. Instead of a dramatic increase in troop numbers, the SDR recommends using technology, drones and software to 'increase lethality tenfold'. To do this, the MoD plans to deliver a 1 billion pound ($1.35bn) 'digital targeting web', an AI-driven software tool designed to collect battlefield data and use it to enable faster decision making. More details about the SDR will be provided in the upcoming Defence Industrial Strategy, expected in the coming weeks, but UK defence companies will be among the big winners from the new SDR. Though supposedly a 10-year review, past SDRs suggest its shelf life might be more limited. The last SDR was published in 2021 and recommended 'a strategic pivot towards the Indo-Pacific region to counter China's influence and deepen ties with allies like Australia, India, and Japan', in line with strategic priorities of the time. This SDR, undertaken in the wake of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, has re-oriented the UK's geographical priorities. In the coming years, those could change again. Proposals to prepare the UK's armed forces to be 'battle ready' will cost at least 67.6 billion pounds ($91.4bn) through to the late 2030s, according to costings and estimates provided in the SDR. Before Monday's announcement, the government had already pledged to increase spending on defence from 2.3 percent currently to 2.5 percent by 2027, an increase of about 6 billion pounds ($8.1bn) per year. This would raise 60 billion pounds over 10 years – a bit shy of the cost projected by the SDR. The government has said it will cut overseas aid to fund that 0.2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) rise in defence spending. Critics say this will not be enough and that the measures outlined by the SDR will cost more like 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). James Cartlidge, the shadow defence secretary, said the 'authors of the strategic defence review were clear that 3 percent [not 2.5 percent] of GDP 'established the affordability' of the plan.' In February, the Labour government said it had 'an ambition' to raise defence spending to 3 percent in the next parliament (after 2029), but Cartlidge said: 'That commitment cannot be guaranteed ahead of the next general election.' According to researchers at the Institute for Fiscal Studies – an independent, London-based research organisation – raising defence spending to 3 percent of GDP by 2030 would require an extra 17 billion pounds between now and then, which the government has not yet accounted for. But the UK could be required to raise spending even more than this. In discussions taking place in advance of the NATO summit in The Hague later this month, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte is understood to be pushing for member nations to commit 5 percent of GDP towards defence-related spending. Rutte has proposed that NATO's 32 members commit to spending 3.5 percent on hard defence and 1.5 percent on broader security, such as cyber, by 2032. 'At this Ministerial, we are going to take a huge leap forward,' Rutte stated before a meeting of defence ministers in Brussels on Thursday this week. 'We will strengthen our deterrence and defence by agreeing ambitious new capability targets.' He specified air and missile defence, long-range weapons, logistics, and large land manoeuvre formations as among the alliance's top priorities, according to a briefing note from NATO on Wednesday. 'We need more resources, forces and capabilities so that we are prepared to face any threat, and to implement our collective defence plans in full,' he said, adding: 'We will need significantly higher defence spending. That underpins everything.' On Monday, Starmer refused to rule out another raid on the aid budget to fund higher military spending, and signalled that he was hopeful the extra investment could be supported by a growing the economy and generating more taxes to pay for defence. After the SDR's announcement, Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, warned that the prime minister will need to make 'really quite chunky tax increases' to pay for the plans. Alternatively, increased defence spending could be siphoned off from other parts of the budget – for instance, through reduced state spending on areas like transport and energy infrastructure.
Al Jazeera
a day ago
- Al Jazeera
South Korea's Lee promises to ‘heal wounds' in first address as president
South Korea's new President Lee Jae-myung has pledged to 'heal wounds' after months of political and economic turmoil across the country and to reopen dialogue with North Korea in his first speech after taking office following a landslide win at the polls. Lee, who hails from the liberal Democratic Party of Korea, replaces ousted President Yoon Suk-yeol, who last year triggered a national emergency when he briefly imposed martial law, citing antistate forces and North Korean infiltration. After taking the oath of office at parliament on Wednesday, Lee pledged to help South Korea reverse course following months of uncertainty and political protest. South Korea has also found itself under attack from the United States, a top economic and security ally, where trade protectionism is on the rise under President Donald Trump. 'A Lee Jae-myung government will be a pragmatic pro-market government,' Lee said in a speech. Lee said he would try to make headway in South Korea's relations with Pyongyang, working to 'deter North Korean nuclear and military provocations while opening communication channels and pursuing dialogue and cooperation to build peace on the Korean Peninsula'. 'We will heal the wounds of division and war and establish a future of peace and prosperity,' he said. 'No matter how costly, peace is better than war,' he added. Lee also warned that 'rising protectionism and supply chain restructuring' posed a threat to South Korea's export-driven economy, and said he would address cost-of-living concerns facing middle- and low-income families. South Korea's caretaker government, which ruled after Yoon's ouster, failed to negotiate a trade deal with the Trump administration to cut down proposed tariffs on imports from the country. Trump's 25 percent 'Liberation Day' tariffs on South Korea – aimed at addressing the US trade imbalance – are currently on pause pending negotiations, but South Korean exporters were hit with a new 50 percent tariff on steel and aluminium products. Lee won this week's snap election with 49.4 percent of the vote, well ahead of conservative candidate Kim Moon-soo, as South Korean voters turned out in the highest numbers since 1997.
