Background

North Korea fired two suspected short-range ballistic missiles on Thursday, as Pyongyang warned it would respond to the joint military exercises of the U.S. and South Korea. Citing the South Korean military, Seoul-based Yonhap News reported that the latest launch, conducted from the Sunan area, might have been in protest to a recent series of large South Korea-U.S. live-fire drills that ended this week. Earlier in the day, a spokesperson for North Korea’s Defense Ministry issued a statement denouncing what it called the “provocative and irresponsible” drills.

Details of the Launch

Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it had detected the launch of “two short-range ballistic missiles from the Sunan area into the East Sea between 7:25 p.m. and 7:37 p.m. (10:25 a.m. to 10:37 a.m. GMT),” referring to the body of water also known as the Sea of Japan. “We have stepped up monitoring in case of further provocations and are maintaining readiness in close coordination with the United States,” it said, adding that the launches were a “grave provocation” that violated U.N. sanctions. Tokyo also confirmed the missile launches, with a defense ministry official telling reporters that the two missiles had landed in waters within Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

Impact on South Korea, US, and Japan

“The missiles may have flown on irregular trajectories,” Japan’s top government spokesperson Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters, adding that one had flown 850 kilometers (530 miles) and the other around 900 kilometers at altitudes of 50 kilometers, before landing in Japan’s EEZ. The latest launch is not linked to a satellite launch attempt that North Korea had notified Japan of late last month, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said at a press conference. Relations between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest points in years, with diplomacy stalled and the North’s leader Kim Jong Un declaring his country an “irreversible” nuclear power, as well as calling for ramped-up weapons production, including tactical nukes. North Korea has conducted multiple sanctions-busting launches this year, including test-firing its most powerful intercontinental ballistic missiles, and last month attempting to put a military spy satellite into orbit. In response, the hawkish administration of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has bolstered defense cooperation with the U.S. and Japan, including expanding joint drills, which had been scaled back because of COVID-19, and during a bout of ill-fated diplomacy. Yoon personally watched South Korean and U.S. troops take part in the live-fire exercises Thursday. All such drills infuriate Pyongyang, which regards them as rehearsals for invasion.

North Korea’s Reaction

North Korea released a statement Thursday slamming the drills, with a defense ministry spokesperson saying they were “targeting the DPRK by massively mobilizing various types of offensive weapons and equipment,” referring to the country by its official name. “Our response to this is inevitable,” it added in the statement, which was carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. It added that the drills were “escalating the military tension in the region,” and warned: “Our armed forces will fully counter any form of demonstrative moves and provocation of the enemies.”

Lawsuit

On Wednesday, South Korea filed a lawsuit seeking damages from North Korea for the 2020 demolition of a liaison office. The office was established in 2018 with funding from Seoul at an industrial zone near the border in North Korean territory, as South Korea’s then-president Moon Jae-in pressed for a diplomatic breakthrough with Pyongyang. But after that process collapsed and relations deteriorated, North Korea demolished the building in June 2020. Seoul said it was seeking 44.7 billion won ($35 million) in damages, with the country’s Unification Ministry describing the demolition as “clearly an illegal act.” North Korea is likely to ignore any ruling by the court, as courts in South Korea and the U.S. have awarded damages against them before. “Given the timing, the launch seems like the North’s expression of discontent or protest at Seoul’s legal action seeking compensation (for) the North’s demolition of the Kaesong office,” Choi Gil-il, professor of military studies at Sangji University, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).