
North Korea launched three ballistic missiles off its east coast on Wednesday, South Korean military said, as President Biden wrapped up his first presidential trip to Asia.
The missile launch comes just four days after Biden and his South Korean counterpart held a summit meeting in Seoul and agreed to consider expanded military exercises to counter North Korea’s nuclear threats.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the three missiles lifted off from Pyongyang’s Sunan area, where North Korea’s main international airport is located. The three missiles were fired at around 6 a.m., 6:37 a.m. and 6:42 a.m.
Wednesday’s launch marks North Korea’s 17th known weapons test this year, the latest in an unprecedented flurry of tests. Its last known weapons test was May 12 when it fired three short-range ballistic missiles toward the sea.
The test came just hours after North Korea reported its first coronavirus outbreak and called it “the most serious national emergency.” The largely unvaccinated country ordered a nationwide lockdown and mobilized its army to distribute covid-19 medications.
Just 10 days after reporting the country’s first outbreak, however, North Korean state media shifted its tone on the epidemic, boasting a progress in its response. During his trip to South Korea, Biden, along with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, expressed the willingness to provide coronavirus aid to North Korea, but Pyongyang still has not responded to the offer.
U.S. and South Korean officials assessed that North Korea, despite the virus outbreak, could conduct a nuclear test or launch a long-range missile around the time of Biden’s five-day Asia trip that concluded on Tuesday.
Biden told reporters on Sunday in South Korea that he is “not concerned” about potential weapons test from North Korea. “We are prepared for anything North Korea does. We’ve thought through how we would respond to whatever they do,” he said.
North Korea may well react angrily to Biden’s and Yoon’s recent vows to step up allied deterrence against North Korea’s nuclear arsenal, which Pyongyang says is necessary to protect itself from American threats. A future expansion of the U.S.-South Korean joint military exercises could dial up regional tensions simmering over defiant North Korea, experts said. While the two allies say the drills are defensive in nature, Pyongyang called them preparations for an invasion.
The U.S. military’s Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement that Wednesday’s missile launch “highlights the destabilizing impact of the DPRK’s illicit weapons program,” referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Yoon convened a meeting of South Korea’s National Security Council early Wednesday to discuss the missiles tests, his office said in a statement.