North Korea on Tuesday (November 5) fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast, Japan's defence minister Gen Nakatani said. This came soon after Pyongyang condemned the military drills conducted by its rivals and also hours before the commencement of voting for U.S. presidential election.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's sister Kim Yo Jong had condemned the drills which involved the United States, Japan, and South Korea, a report published on state media KCNA said.
North Korea launched at least seven missiles, which flew to an altitude of 100 km (62 miles), covering a range of 400 km. Japan's Defence Minister Gen Nakatani said the missiles fell outside Japan's exclusive economic zone into the ocean, news agency Reuters reported.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missiles were fired at around 7:30 AM on Tuesday (2230 GMT on Monday) from the vicinity of Sariwon, North Hwanghae Province. Following the launches, the US miliary said that it closely monitoring the situation and was consulting with Japan, South Korea, and other regional allies.
The Tuesday launch follows North Korea tested a huge new solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile dubbed Hwasong-19 last week.
"If the ICBM was meant for the U.S., the latest ballistic missiles are for South Korea," University of North Korean Studies in Seoul president Yang Moo-jin said.
Yang believed that the intent behind the latest fire was to divert the attention of the international community away from criticising the dispatch of North Korean troops to Russia amid the ongoing war with Ukraine.
"Directly, it is to protest the joint air drills by South Korea, U.S. and Japan. Indirectly it is to show off their presence last minute before the U.S. presidential election," Yang said.
North Korean state media KCNA on Tuesday said Kim Yo Jong condemned the recent military drills conducted by the US, Japan, and South Korea, calling them "threats" and stated they justify nuclear reinforcement carried out by North Korea.
The missile launch was done after Russian President Vladimir Putin met North Korea's foreign minister Choe Son Hui in an unexpected meeting on Monday.
During Putin's surprise meeting with Choe in Kremlin, they shook hands for a full minute at a time amid rising concern in the West over possible entry of North Korean soldiers in the Ukraine war on Moscow's side.
The US on Monday had also called out Russia and China at the U.N. Security Council for "shamelessly protecting" and encouraging North Korea to further violate U.N. sanctions by advancing its nuclear, ballistic missile, and weapons of mass destruction programmes.
Last month, South Korean Defence Minister Kim Yong-hyun said that North Korea "would want to exaggerate their existence around the season of the U.S. presidential election before and after the election" through its show of force such as an another nuclear test or intercontinental missile test, Reuters reported.