North Korea has fired eight short-range ballistic missiles less than two weeks after its last test, according to the South Korean military.
Sunday’s test lasted 35 minutes, with missiles being fired successively from the Sunan area near the North Korean capital Pyongyang.
Japan’s Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said the release “cannot be tolerated.”
It is unclear how far the missiles traveled, but Kishi said in a briefing that at least one missile had a variable trajectory, indicating that it could maneuver to evade missile defenses.
The news comes just a day after South Korea and the United States ended three days of combined exercise off the Japanese island of Okinawa.
The exercises involved the USS Ronald Reagan, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.
North Korea describes these exercises as an example of U.S. “hostile policies” toward it.
U.S. Special Representative Sung Kim has also been in the area, meeting with South Korean and Japanese counterparts to prepare for “all contingencies” as fears of Pyongyang grow. may soon do a nuclear test for the first time since 2017.
Kim insisted that the US is open to diplomacy with North Korea, even going so far as to say that this includes talks on easing sanctions.
Image: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is balancing missile tests with a COVID-19 outbreak
Sunday’s missile test was North Korea’s 18th this year.
The most recent was on May 25, when it launched three missiles, including its largest intercontinental ballistic missile, the Hwasong-17.
This led to a resolution by the United States in the UN Security Council calling for more sanctions, although Russia and China vetoed it.
Talks between the US and North Korea have not progressed since 2019: the US wants signs of disarmament, but North Korea refuses to take such action as long as sanctions remain at their current level.
Despite icy relations, the United States has offered to help North Korea in its fight against COVID-19, as the country continues to fight its first known outbreak since the pandemic began.
More than 73,000 people reported symptoms of fever on Saturday.