"North Korea fired an unidentified ballistic missile towards the East Sea," the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday, March 27, using the Korean name for the Sea of Japan. The launch comes days after Seoul and Washington completed their largest joint military drills in five years on Thursday.
Pyongyang sees the maneuvers as rehearsals for an invasion of its territory and has repeatedly warned that it will respond "overwhelmingly" to them. She claimed on Friday that the recent drills, dubbed "Freedom Shield," were training for an "occupation" of North Korea.
The North Korean army reacted by carrying out its own military maneuvers. In particular, it tested last Thursday what it presents as a new "underwater nuclear attack drone" capable of triggering a "radioactive tsunami", information greeted with skepticism by analysts. North Korea also launched its second intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) of the year last Wednesday.
After a record year of weapons testing and growing nuclear threats from Pyongyang in 2022, Seoul and Washington are stepping up their security cooperation.
Last year, North Korea declared itself an "irreversible" nuclear power, and leader Kim Jong-un recently called for an "exponential" increase in the production of weapons, including tactical nuclear weapons.
