Pyongyang fires a short-range missile and Seoul and Washington deploy a bomber

North Korea launched a short-range ballistic missile into the Sea of ​​Japan on Sunday, the South Korean Army and the Japanese authorities reported.

The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) detected this Sunday the new Pyongyang test, which occurs after the North on Thursday launched a new type of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that according to the regime is the one with the longest potential range of its arsenal.

Japan’s Defense Ministry also detected the launch that occurred at about 11:05 a.m. Sunday (2:05 a.m. GMT), noting that the missile landed about 15 minutes later in waters outside its exclusive economic space (EEZ).

The South Korean Army specified in a statement that the launch took place from the Tonchang-ri area and traveled some 800 kilometers before falling into the sea, while the Japanese Ministry of Defense indicated that the projectile reached a maximum height of 50 kilometers and could having flown in an irregular trajectory.

A strategic bomber

South Korea and the United States for their part deployed a strategic bomber. The maneuvers were carried out over South Korea as part of the joint exercises that both countries have been carrying out since the 13th, and to which Pyongyang has responded with successive missile tests.

In addition to the B-1, which was already deployed on the Korean peninsula on the 3rd, the exercises involved F-35A stealth fighters from the Asian country and US F-16 aircraft.

The new deployment of the strategic bomber comes on the same day that Pyongyang launched a short-range ballistic missile into the Sea of ​​Japan (called the East Sea in both Koreas) and three days after the regime fired an intercontinental ballistic missile, an Hwasong-17, considered the longest-range in their arsenal.

Seoul and Washington “maintain their highest level of combined defense against North Korea’s continued threats to regional stability,” the South Korean Defense Ministry said in a statement.

The latest weapons tests by the North are a reply by Pyongyang to the joint maneuvers carried out by Seoul and Washington in the south of the peninsula, seen by the North as “a test to invade its territory and to which it has promised to give” an answer without precedents”.

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Tags: ballistic missilebomberdeployfiresJapanmissileNorth Korea threatens nuclear warpyongyangSeoulshortrangeSouth KoreaWashington