Saber rattling? Or something more foreboding?
Back in November, North Korea launched its most missiles in a single day, including one that landed further south than ever before and one which ended up just 60km off the South Korean coast. Previously, at the start of October and for the first time since 2017,
North Korea
fired a missile over
Japan
, prompting the government to issue an alert for some citizens to seek cover. According to reports, the missile travelled 4,500km, finally falling into the Pacific Ocean. With such a range, the missile tested would be able to strike the US island of Guam if it was fired on another trajectory.In the latest escalation, Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, said that the country could turn the Pacific into a “firing range” after conducting two missile tests off its east coast on Monday. This followed the firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) two days earlier and prompted South Korea to warn that further such actions would only strengthen the argument for it to develop its own nuclear deterrent.
As this infographic shows, North Korean missile tests intensified greatly last year. They were already at a record high by June and only continued to increase further. As the data from the
Nuclear Threat Initiative
shows, posturing from North Korea has been on the rise after a test-less 2018. In 2018 and early 2019, two summits between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Trump brought tests to a halt, but eventually rendered no concrete results as rhetoric between the two nations grew heated again quickly.2019 ended up seeing more
missile
tests than 2017, when North Korea’s demonstration of its ability to reach the U.S. with its missiles led to a diplomatic crisis. Intercontinental or even intermediate missile tests were not witnessed from 2018 to 2021, but there were successful tests of each in 2022.
https://www.statista.com/chart/9172/north-korea-missile-tests-timeline/