North Korea fires 2 cruise missiles amid US-South Korean military exercises
Two people watch a news broadcast with archival footage of a North Korean missile test, at a train station in Seoul on August 17, 2022, after North Korea fired two cruise missiles, according to Korea from South.
AFP - ANTHONY WALLACE
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
Military tensions are not falling on the Korean peninsula.
As fears of a seventh nuclear test by North Korea are growing, the North Korean army fired two cruise missiles this morning towards the Yellow Sea.
A new bravado against the backdrop of an attempt at rapprochement by South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol who two days earlier put forward a “
bold initiative
” intended to improve the economic situation of the hermit kingdom.
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With our correspondent in Seoul, Louis Palligiano
Seoul's promise to provide " large-scale
" economic aid
if Pyongyang begins denuclearization measures does not seem to have appeased the Kim Jong-un regime.
While the South Korean head of state Yoon Suk-yeol held a press conference this Wednesday morning August 17 marking the 100th day since
his inauguration
- where he notably mentioned the establishment of a food program as well as infrastructure projects that could benefit the North - the North Korean military conducted test firings of two cruise missiles towards the Yellow Sea.
With these first known cruise missile launches since January, North Korea is likely showing its displeasure with the annual combined South Korea-US exercise Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) due to begin on Monday. next.
Maneuvers
inevitably qualified as a repeat invasion
by Pyongyang, which uses it as a pretext to justify its nuclear weapons program.
North Korea's test of a cruise missile does not, however, violate United Nations Security Council resolutions that prohibit any launch using ballistic missile technologies.
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North Korea
South Korea
United States
Kim Jong Un
Yoon Suk-yeol
Defense