{"id":16699,"date":"2023-03-27T15:23:06","date_gmt":"2023-03-27T07:23:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=16699"},"modified":"2023-03-27T15:23:07","modified_gmt":"2023-03-27T07:23:07","slug":"north-korea-fires-ballistic-missile-off-its-east-coast-south-koreas-military","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=16699","title":{"rendered":"North Korea fires ballistic missile off its east coast &#8211; South Korea&#8217;s military"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>SEOUL, March 27<\/strong> &#8211; North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea off its east coast on Monday morning, South Korea&#8217;s military said, the latest in a series of launches as a U.S. aircraft carrier is set to arrive in South Korea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The missiles were fired from North Hwanghae province at 7:47 a.m. (2247 GMT on Sunday) and flew about 370 kilometres (230 miles), South Korea&#8217;s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Both missiles appear to have landed outside Japan&#8217;s exclusive economic zone, the Japanese government said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Monday&#8217;s launches came as the U.S. aircraft carrier USS Nimitz and ships from its accompanying strike group are scheduled to dock at a South Korean naval base in the southeastern port city of Busan on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before its arrival, the carrier was to stage joint maritime exercises with South Korean forces on Monday off the Korean peninsula&#8217;s south coast, South Korea&#8217;s defence ministry said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The carrier&#8217;s planned visit, which marks the first since the USS Ronald Reagan visited in September, was arranged as part of efforts to have more U.S. &#8220;strategic assets&#8221; in the area to deter North Korea, the ministry said.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/OLQ4SG7XWRMB3PXB4JRZMDUXSQ-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"north korea\" class=\"wp-image-15060\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/OLQ4SG7XWRMB3PXB4JRZMDUXSQ-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/OLQ4SG7XWRMB3PXB4JRZMDUXSQ-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/OLQ4SG7XWRMB3PXB4JRZMDUXSQ-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/OLQ4SG7XWRMB3PXB4JRZMDUXSQ-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/OLQ4SG7XWRMB3PXB4JRZMDUXSQ-350x233.jpg 350w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/OLQ4SG7XWRMB3PXB4JRZMDUXSQ-800x533.jpg 800w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/OLQ4SG7XWRMB3PXB4JRZMDUXSQ.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>South Korea&#8217;s military &#8220;strongly condemned&#8221; the North&#8217;s repeated missile launches as a grave provocation violating United Nations Security Council resolutions, and called for an immediate halt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We will keep a close eye on North Korea&#8217;s various activities and maintain firm readiness posture based on the capability to overwhelmingly respond to any provocations,&#8221; the JCS said in a statement, adding that it would continue military drills with the U.S. as planned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Japanese government lodged a &#8220;strong protest&#8221; with North Korea, saying its missile launches threaten the safety and peace of Japan, the region and the international community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said the latest launches did not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel or their allies. But the missiles highlight the destabilising impact of Pyongyang&#8217;s unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programmes, it said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/graphics.reuters.com\/NORTHKOREA-MISSILES\/zgpobnqyjvd\/chart.png\" alt=\"north korea\" width=\"628\" height=\"603\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>North Korea has been ramping up its military tests in recent weeks, including the firing of multiple cruise missiles on Wednesday that Pyongyang said was aimed at practicing&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/asia-pacific\/north-korea-says-it-tested-new-nuclear-underwater-attack-system-kcna-2023-03-23\/\">tactical nuclear attacks<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said North Korea was likely to step up provocative activities, including a possible nuclear test.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>U.S. and South Korean officials have for nearly a year warned the North could carry out what would be its first nuclear test since 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On Friday, North Korea said it had tested a new nuclear-capable underwater attack drone, as leader Kim Jong Un warned that joint military drills by South Korea and the U.S. should stop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The allies concluded their regular springtime exercises, called Freedom Shield 23, last week, but have other field training continuing, including amphibious&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/business\/aerospace-defense\/us-amphibious-assault-ship-joins-drills-south-korea-2023-03-23\/\">landing drills<\/a>&nbsp;involving a U.S. amphibious assault ship, and the exercises with the U.S. carrier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pyongyang has long bristled at the allies&#8217; drills, saying they are preparation for an invasion of the North.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>South Korea and the United States say the exercises are defensive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/\">NMT<\/a> as reported by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/asia-pacific\/north-korea-fires-ballistic-missile-south-korea-military-2023-03-26\/\">Reuters<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SEOUL, March 27 &#8211; North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea off&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15060,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/OLQ4SG7XWRMB3PXB4JRZMDUXSQ.jpg",1200,800,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/OLQ4SG7XWRMB3PXB4JRZMDUXSQ-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/OLQ4SG7XWRMB3PXB4JRZMDUXSQ-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/OLQ4SG7XWRMB3PXB4JRZMDUXSQ-768x512.jpg",640,427,true],"large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/OLQ4SG7XWRMB3PXB4JRZMDUXSQ-1024x683.jpg",640,427,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/OLQ4SG7XWRMB3PXB4JRZMDUXSQ.jpg",1200,800,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/OLQ4SG7XWRMB3PXB4JRZMDUXSQ.jpg",1200,800,false],"newsium-slider-full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/OLQ4SG7XWRMB3PXB4JRZMDUXSQ.jpg",1200,800,false],"newsium-featured":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/OLQ4SG7XWRMB3PXB4JRZMDUXSQ.jpg",1024,683,false],"newsium-medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/OLQ4SG7XWRMB3PXB4JRZMDUXSQ.jpg",713,475,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Editor"]},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?cat=59\" rel=\"category\">World<\/a>","tag_info":"World","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16699"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16700,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16699\/revisions\/16700"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}