North Korea fires suspected ballistic missile into sea off east coast

North Korea on Sunday launched a suspected ballistic missile into sea, South Korean and Japanese officials said, in the North’s apparent eighth round of weapons tests so far this year.

The resumption of weapons tests comes as the United States and its allies are focused on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The North Korean launch was the eighth of its kind this year and the first since January 30. Some experts have said North Korea is trying to perfect its weapons technology and pressure the United States into offering concessions like sanctions relief amid long-stalled disarmament talks.

They say North Korea also might view the US preoccupation with the Ukraine conflict as a chance to accelerate testing activity without any serious response from Washington.

Japanese Defence Minister Nobuo Kishi said the North Korean missile flew about 190 miles at a maximum altitude of about 370 miles before landing off North Korea’s eastern coast and outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone. No damage to vessels or aircraft has been reported, he said.

“If North Korea deliberately carried out the missile launch while the international community is distracted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, such an act is absolutely unforgivable,” he told reporters.

“Whatever the motives are, North Korea’s repeated missile launches are absolutely inexcusable and we cannot overlook considerable missile and nuclear advancement.”

South Korean officials said they also detected the launch from the North’s capital area and expressed “deep concerns and grave regret” over it.

During an emergency national security council meeting, top South Korean officials said the timing of the launch, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, “is not desirable at all for peace and stability in the world and on the Korean Peninsula”, the presidential Blue House said.

The US Indo-Pacific Command said later Sunday it condemned the launch and called on North Korea to refrain from further destabilising acts.

A command statement said the US commitment to the defence of South Korea and Japan “remains ironclad,” though Sunday’s launch didn’t pose an immediate threat to US territory and that of its allies.

The launch came a day after North Korea made its first response to the Ukraine war in the form of an article by a government analyst that expressed support for Russia and slammed the United States.

“The basic cause of the Ukraine incident lies in the high-handedness and arbitrariness of the United States, which has ignored Russia’s legitimate calls for security guarantees and only sought a global hegemony and military dominance while clinging to its sanctions campaigns,” Ri Ji Song, a researcher at a North Korean state-run institute on international politics, said in a post published on the website of the Foreign Ministry.

Mr Ri accused Washington of “arrogance” and “double standards” because it describes its rivals’ defence measures as provocations or injustices.

The former Soviet Union was North Korea’s biggest aid provider before its disintegration in the early 1990s.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been pushing to restore his country’s ties with North Korea in what is seen as a bid to regain its traditional domains of influence and secure more allies to better deal with the United States.

Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, said the Biden administration needs to show that it maintains a strategic focus on the Indo-Pacific region, including by responding sternly to Pyongyang’s provocations.

“North Korea is not going to do anyone the favour of staying quiet while the world deals with Russia’s aggression against Ukraine,” Mr Easley said.

“Pyongyang has an ambitious schedule of military modernization. The Kim regime’s strength and legitimacy have become tied to testing ever-better missiles.”

Last month North Korea conducted seven rounds of missile tests in what some experts called an attempt to perfect its weapons technology and pressure Joe Biden’s administration to make concessions like relief from economic sanctions.

North Korea later halted testing activity after the start of the Winter Olympics in China, which is its last major major ally and economic pipeline. Some experts had predicted North Korea would resume tests and possible launch bigger weapons after the Olympics.