North Korea Launches Provocative Missile Test
(NewsSpace.com) – North Korean President Kim Jong Un often shows off his country’s military strength. The country conducted four missile tests last week and a total of 23 since January. The latest test, however, wasn’t a typical operation.
ALERT: The Japanese government is warning that North Korea appears to have launched at least one ballistic missile. There's a possibility it's heading toward Japan. The government is urging everyone in the country to monitor news media. pic.twitter.com/pgoZaCMMsz
— U.S. Embassy Tokyo, ACS (@ACSTokyo) October 3, 2022
On October 4, North Korea fired an intermediate-range ballistic missile from its base in Mupyong-ri, near the central Chinese border. The rocket flew directly over Japan, splashing down in the sea about 1,800 miles to the east. Altogether, the vessel flew 2,800 miles, about 500 miles further than any previous test.
The last time Kim’s regime was bold enough to fire a weapon across the Japanese archipelago, former President Donald Trump sat in the Oval Office. Trump’s administration sent B-1B supersonic bombers and other military planes as a show of strength. The two leaders exchanged a series of insults with one another, and nothing ultimately came of the missile launch.
This time around, the US is in the area running drills and tests of its own with the South Korean military. The USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier strike group joined with Seoul’s forces with some demonstrations of their own. The joint training team fired surface-to-surface missiles and tasked fighter jets with precision strikes in coastal areas to demonstrate the ability to deal with North Korea’s aggression.
Nonetheless, the test brought about a flurry of diplomatic phone calls between the US and its allies in South Korea and Japan. President Joe Biden spoke with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. The two leaders agreed that North Korea’s actions are destabilizing for the entire region.
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