- North boosts military capabilities amid Iran war, experts say
- Ballistic missiles flew 140 km in 4th launch this month.
- Trump visited Asia in May, interested in meeting Kim Jong Un.
North Korea fired ballistic missiles into the sea on Sunday, accelerating its missile launches amid warring tensions with Iran and talk of possible meetings with the United States and South Korea.
Pyongyang’s intense missile activity – this was the fourth such launch this month and the seventh of the year – is intended to show its self-defense capabilities while gaining international influence, some experts said.
– The missile launches can be a way to show that we – unlike Iran – have self-defense capabilities, says the South Korean former president’s security advisor Kim Ki-jung.
“The North also appears to be exerting pre-emptive pressure and a show of force before engaging in dialogue with the US and South Korea,” he said.
Iran war, Trump visit loom over launches
The seven-week-old US-Israeli war against Iran, which has as one goal the curbing of Tehran’s nuclear program, could strengthen Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions, experts and former South Korean officials say.
US President Donald Trump, who is preparing for a summit in China next month, and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung have repeatedly expressed interest in holding talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. There are no publicly known plans for any meetings.
Lee recently expressed regret to the North for drone incursions from the South and received rare praise from Pyongyang.
Sunday’s missiles were fired from near the city of Sinpo on North Korea’s east coast toward the sea at around 06:10 local time and flew about 140 km (90 miles), South Korea’s military said in a statement.
Japan’s government wrote on social media that the missiles were believed to have fallen near the east coast of the Korean peninsula and no intrusion into Japan’s exclusive economic zone had been confirmed.
South Korea’s presidential Blue House called an emergency security meeting and called the launch a provocation that violated UN Security Council resolutions, according to media reports. It called on Pyongyang to “stop the provocative actions”.
It was not clear what kind of ballistic missiles were fired, but Sinpo has submarines and equipment for test-firing submarine-launched ballistic missiles. The North last fired a ballistic missile from a submarine in May 2022, and it flew as far as 600 km (370 miles).
North Korea has made “very serious” progress in its ability to produce nuclear weapons with the likely addition of a new uranium enrichment facility, International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi said on Wednesday.
In late March, North Korean leader Kim said that Pyongyang’s status as a nuclear-armed state was irreversible and that expanding a “self-defensive nuclear deterrent” was essential to national security.
