North Korea tests a multiple launch rocket system in this image released by the state-run Korean Central News Agency, March 19, 2024. (KCNA)
CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea — North Korea fired several short-range ballistic missiles on the final day of a three-day thanksgiving holiday, according to the South’s military.
The show of force came less than a week after Pyongyang offered a rare glimpse into what state-run media said is a secretive facility to produce weapons-grade uranium.
Wednesday’s missiles were launched at 6:50 a.m. from South Pyongan province and flew northeast approximately 250 miles, the South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a text message to reporters that morning.
The incident is “a clear provocation that seriously threatens the peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula,” the Joint Chiefs said.
The missiles were assessed to have landed near North Korea’s eastern coast and did not fall within Tokyo’s maritime exclusive economic zone, Japan’s Ministry of Defense said in a news release.
The weapons posed no immediate threat to the United States or its allies, according to a statement from U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. It condemned the launches and called on North Korea “to refrain from further unlawful and destabilizing acts.”
South Korea observed Chuseok, its mid-autumn harvest holiday, from Monday to Wednesday; government and businesses are widely closed for the holiday. North Korea observed the holiday for one day on Tuesday.
Pyongyang has fired more than 40 ballistic missiles in 10 separate days of testing so far this year.
Wednesday’s launches happened five days after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for ramping up production of “nuclear materials necessary for the manufacture of tactical nuclear weapons,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported Friday.
Images released with the report show Kim touring what the North purports to be a uranium enrichment facility in an undisclosed location.
A day before KCNA’s report, the North launched several short-range ballistic missiles that flew roughly 220 miles before splashing down in the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea.
Stars and Stripes reporter Hana Kusumoto contributed to this report.
