This year, Kim’s regime test-fired about 70 ballistic missiles, the most in his decade in power and in defiance of UN resolutions that prohibit the launches.
“:”North Korea fired at least three suspected short-range ballistic missiles on Saturday, adding to its record number of launches this year as Kim Jong-un leads a major political meeting to set policy for 2023. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea fired the barrage from an area south of Pyongyang in North Hwanghae province toward waters off its east coast. Japan said the three missiles, launched from around 8am on Saturday, flew about 350 kilometres (217 miles) in distance at a maximum altitude of about 100km. While the missiles did not pose an immediate threat to the US or its allies, the launches highlighted “the destabilising impact” of North Korea’s ballistic missile programmes, the US Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement. In recent months, Kim has accelerated his state’s response to actions from the US and its allies that Pyongyang sees as provocative, including sending drones to the south. The missile launch came on Friday, hours after South Korea had a test-flight of a solid fuel space vehicle. North Korea’s Kim to welcome 2023 with even more missiles, nuclear threats Officials from Japan, the US and South Korea spoke in a phone call on Saturday, according to the Japanese foreign ministry. The three parties strongly condemned North Korea’s launch of a record number of ballistic missiles this year including those on Saturday, and agreed the unprecedented frequency poses a grave and imminent threat to the security of the region as well as a clear and serious challenge to the international community.
