By Franz-Stefan Gady
It’s Groundhog Day on the Korean Peninsula: North Korea voiced its discontent over military drills in the usual manner.
Early Monday morning, 6:32 a.m. and 6:41 a.m local time, North Korea fired two short-range Scud ballistic missiles from Nampho, a port south of Pyongyang. The missiles traveled for about 490km (305 miles) before hitting the sea, according to the Wall Street Journal, which cites South Korea’s Defense Ministry as a source. A defense ministry spokesperson also noted that North Korea did not designate any no-sail zones prior to the launches, which Seoul took as a provocation.
The missiles were North Korea’s predictable way of voicing their anger over two South Korean-U.S. military exercises that began this Monday and will last until April 24. According to a North Korean People’s Army spokesperson, “The situation on the Korean peninsula is again inching close to the brink of a war. The only means to cope with the aggression and war by the U.S. imperialists and their followers is neither dialogue nor peace. They should be dealt with only by merciless strikes.”
North Korea had offered a moratorium on nuclear testing if this year’s U.S.-ROK joint military exercises were cancelled. However, this proposal was rejected by the United States as an “implicit threat” to carry out further nuclear tests. At the moment, North Korea is also conducting military maneuvers of its own.
Read the full story at The Diplomat