North Korea launched an “unknown” ballistic missile on Monday towards the Sea of Japan, also called the East Sea, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff announced, the day of the secretary’s visit to Seoul President Antony Blinken.
“Our military detected a projectile, presumed to be an intermediate-range ballistic missile, launched from the Pyongyang region towards the East Sea around 12 p.m.” (4 a.m. in Switzerland), indicated the South Joint Staff -Korean.
The Japanese Defense Ministry also announced on X that it had detected a missile launch from North Korea, adding that the projectile appeared to have fallen into the sea.
This is the first missile test by North Korea this year. The last shots, a salvo of short-range ballistic missiles, took place on November 6, a few hours before the presidential election in the United States. The previous week North Korea tested what it said was its new solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the most advanced in its arsenal.
Blinken’s Asian tour
This shot comes the day Antony Blinken makes a farewell tour to Seoul and Tokyo before Donald Trump arrives at the White House.
Under the presidency of Joe Biden, South Korea, the United States and Japan have considerably strengthened their military alliance in the face of threats from North Korea, a country with nuclear weapons.
It also comes at a time when South Korea is plunged into one of the worst political crises in its history, after the failed proclamation of martial law by President Yoon Suk Yeol who was subsequently dismissed and is threatened with arrest.
