US officials have confirmed Thursday that North Korea fired additional short-range missiles into the Sea of Japan on Thursday. This is the third round of such firing in the past eight days, and US officials say they believe the missiles are similar to those from previous firing.
Why North Korea is suddenly firing so many rounds of such missiles is unclear. Though they’ve been presented as warnings over South Korea and a joint US military exercise, US officials have said they don’t view the tests as anything to do with them. With it established that the US doesn’t mind, North Korea may feel free to conduct all the tests they may have held back over the past year and a half.
The US reaction is the same as previous tests, with President Trump saying he is “not worried” about the tests of the short-range missiles, and believes the situation with North Korea “very much under control.“
The UN Security Council held a closed door meeting on North Korea on Thursday, ending with calls for the US and North Korea to get back to “meaningful” talks, while expressing support for continuing the enforcement of sanctions going forward.
“Why North Korea is suddenly firing so many rounds of such missiles is unclear.” First thought: why would N. Korea expend several missiles to send a message? Second thought: are these missiles no longer up-to-date hence expendable? Third thought: these are actually tests of improvements of guidance systems. One major issue of guided missiles is: how close did the missile get to the intended target? If a missile misses by too much then the guidance system is worthless and needs improvement.