North fires 2 short-range missiles as Freedom Shield continues

North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles (SRBM) from its western coast into the East Sea, South Korean military officials said Tuesday.

Footage from the Korean Central Televsion (KCTV) shows the launch of a North Korean KN-23 short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) from a transporter erector launcher on May 9, 2019. [YONHAP]

North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles (SRBM) from its western coast into the East Sea, South Korean military officials said Tuesday.

The two SRBMs were launched from Changyon, South Hwanghae Province, at 7:41 a.m. and 7:51 a.m., and landed in waters east of the Korean Peninsula, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).

The missiles flew approximately 620 kilometers (385 miles), a range that would cover all of South Korea from the launch site.

South Korean military officials believe that both missiles are modified variants of the North’s Iskander-type SRBMs, known as KN-23s by U.S. military intelligence.

Tuesday’s missile launches are the second conducted by the North this week.

It fired two cruise missiles from a submarine in waters off its east coast on Sunday, according to North Korean state media the following day.

In its statement on Tuesday, the JCS condemned the recent launches as “grave provocations that harm the peace and security of not only the Korean Peninsula, but also that of the international community” and called on Pyongyang to “immediately halt” its “blatant violations of United Nations Security Council resolutions.”

Tuesday’s missile launches mark the fifth time this year that the North has fired ballistic missiles.

State-controlled Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Sunday that the Central Military Commission of the regime’s ruling Workers’ Party decided to undertake “important practical steps for making more effective, powerful and offensive use of the war deterrent of the country” at a Saturday meeting that was attended by leader Kim Jong-un.

The KCNA said the measures were undertaken in light of “the present situation in which the war provocations of the U.S. and South Korea are reaching the red-line,” referring to the 11 day-long Freedom Shield joint military exercise by South Korea and the United States, which began on Sunday.

The springtime exercise is set to strengthen the combined defense posture of the allied forced through “realistic” and “customized” scenarios reflective of the changing security environment, such as North Korea's nuclear and missile threats and the war in Ukraine, according to South Korean officials.

Freedom Shield is scheduled to run continuously without interruption through March 23, the longest command post exercise to date and the largest joint exercise in five years.

The allies will also conduct around 20 field drills, including the Ssangyong amphibious exercise, for the large-scale Warrior Shield field-maneuver exercise.

In a press briefing in Washington on Monday, U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price called the joint exercise “purely defensive in nature” in response to a question about whether the United States should try to de-escalate tensions on the peninsula, but emphasized that the North’s actions had made it necessary “to reinforce in tangible ways” the U.S. security commitments in the region.

The spokesman also called for “concerted action” by all veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council, including China and Russia, to uphold past council resolutions regarding North Korea.

The United States called on the United Nations Security Council to hold North Korea accountable at the body’s first meeting of the year, in February, but no action was taken due to opposition from China and Russia.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said that “those who shield the DPRK from the consequences of its exploratory missile tests put the Asian region and entire world at risk of conflict,” referring the North by the acronym for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The Security Council met 10 times last year to discuss the North’s missile threats, but all ended with no new sanctions resolutions being adopted.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]