Kim Jong-un’s regime apparently has a huge stock of expendable missiles. It fired a couple more into the Sea of Japan Saturday morning. Seoul keeps track of such activities of Pyongyang and says this was the seventh one after a lapse of nearly 17 months. There was a temporary stoppage when Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un were trying to resolve the burning problem of denuclearization.
They met twice in Singapore and Hanoi and later at the DMZ in north korea but an acceptable solution did not emerge. North Korea expressed its anger over the joint US-South Korean military exercises even though it was on a low scale.
BBC reports that against this background, Pyongyang launched two more missiles soon after the completion of the joint military drills. These traversed a distance of about 240 miles, attained an altitude of 60 miles and finally landed into the Sea of Japan. Authorities in Japan confirmed the missiles did not land in Japanese territorial waters. It is a clear violation of UN resolutions.
South Korea is monitoring
Tension continues to prevail in the Korean peninsula and the South keeps monitoring developments. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) says – “Our military is monitoring the situation in case of additional launches and maintaining a readiness posture." The latest launch coincided with the end of the scaled down US-South Korea military exercises. These have not gone down well with North Korea who sees it as a violation of an agreement between its leader Kim Jong-un, US President Donald Trump and South Korea's President Moon Jae-in.
BBC goes on to add South Korea wants the North to stop escalating military tensions. It reiterated the desire for resumption of negotiations with the United States.
Talks on the major issue of denuclearization remain stalled after failure of the second summit in Hanoi between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un in February. They did meet again in June at the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) where they agreed to restart working-level negotiations. That has yet to happen.
North Korea and its short-range missiles
According to CNN, North Korea fired two short-range missiles within minutes of each other directed towards the Sea of Japan. Authorities in Japan have acknowledged the apparent ballistic missile launches on their websites. In the opinion of experts, Pyongyang has in its kitty much more technologically advanced weaponry than seen in previous years. These include solid-fuel missiles that have several advantages.
One of these is ease of deployment on short notice. US President Donald Trump does not attach much importance to these weapons tests. However, analysts are not convinced. The Trump administration must try to defuse tensions in the peninsula and draw up suitable plans.