N.Korea Fires More Missiles as Yoon Takes Office

North Korea fired another three short-range ballistic missiles towards the East Sea on Thursday, two days after President Yoon Suk-yeol was sworn in here and five days after it fired a ballistic missile from a submarine. It was also the 16th missile launch this year alone.

In its first session of the presidency right after the missiles were fired, the National Security Council strongly condemned the continued firing of missiles by the North as "a provocation that heightens tension on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia and seriously threatens international peace and security."

But the presidential office pledged to take "substantial and firm measures based on objective assessment of the security situation" rather than responding dramatically to every provocation by the North.

According to the Joint Chiefs of Staff here, the North fired the short-range missiles from Sunan, Pyongyang towards the East Sea around 6:29 p.m. Thursday. They flew some 360 km at a speed of Mach 5 and reached an altitude of about 90 km. Experts speculate that they were fired from a KN-25 super-large multiple rocket launcher.

JCS Chairman Won In-choul discussed the situation with Gen. Paul LaCamera, the commander of the U.S. Forces Korea, and they agreed to beef up the combined defense posture, a military spokesman said.

The launch came after the North admitted for the first time that coronavirus infections have killed several people there and declared "the gravest national emergency."