North Korea fires two ballistic missiles, piling more pressure on US

BLOOMBERG

North Korea test-launched two short-range ballistic missiles, adding to its barrage in recent weeks as Pyongyang protests joint military exercises by the US and South Korea.
The missiles were fired starting about 7:47 am local time from the Chunghwa area just south of Pyongyang, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a text message. The missiles were launched about 10 minutes apart and flew about 350 kms (220 miles) and reached a maximum altitude of about 50 kms before landing outside of Japan’s exclusive economic zone, the Defense Ministry in Tokyo said.
Kim Jong-un’s regime has not commented on the latest launch, but its propaganda apparatus has been trumpeting recent tests of weapons it says will “strike fear into the enemies.” North Korea has been seeking new ways to deliver nuclear attacks on the US and its two most important allies in Asia, South Korea and Japan.
Last week, it tested what it billed as a new underwater drone that can create a “radioactive tsunami.” It has also rolled out new missiles to hit US forces in South Korea and this month conducted its first test of a mock nuclear warhead affixed to a missile that could hit western parts of Japan.
The US and South Korea began their largest amphibious exercise in about five years in a training drill called Ssangyong. The US Navy’s Nimitz aircraft carrier group is due to arrive in the South Korean port of Busan on Tuesday, military officials in Seoul said.  The exercises and American military presence are certain to anger Pyongyang, which has already ramped up its provocations to new levels.
“The timing of the latest missile launches appears to be in protest of US-South Korean military drills and the arrival of the USS Nimitz and we can expect more to come because the regime has a technological and political reason to do so,” said Duyeon Kim, an adjunct senior fellow in Seoul at the Center for a New American Security.