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North Korea’s test of an intercontinental ballistic missile over the weekend – its first such test of 2023 – set tensions soaring once again on the divided peninsula and spurred the U.S. to send strategic bombers over the region in a show of force.
Despite a new round of threats from Pyongyang, U.S. and South Korean forces said they were continuing with plans for long-scheduled joint war games and joint drills in the coming weeks, exercises the North has long condemned as a “rehearsal” for an invasion on the divided, heavily-armed peninsula.
The North’s suspected Hwasong-15 ICBM splashed down about 120 million off Japan’s Hokkaido region. Calculations of its hefted flight angle, altitude and length of flight suggested it had the range to reach the continental U.S. if fired on a conventional trajectory.
Already dealing with a war in Ukraine and soaring tensions with China, the Biden administration is now forced once again to deal with the threat posed by the regime of Kim Jong Un, saying over the weekend its determination to protest its ally in Seoul was unshakeable. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on countries in the region to pressure North Korea to pull back.
“We call on others to condemn this action, to take appropriate steps, including the effective enforcement of sanctions, and countries that have influence with North Korea should use it to try to move it from the course that it’s been on now for the last couple of years,” Mr. Blinken said at a security conference in Munich, Germany.
Seoul and Tokyo also protested the test. And on Sunday, South Korean and U.S. air units flew drills over the Yellow Sea, South Korea and the Sea of Japan, in a show of force that included a B1-B strategic bomber and F-35 stealth jet fighters.
