Updated Nov. 05, 2024, 06:15 a.m. ET.
North Korea test-fired short range ballistic missiles on Tuesday, launching them over the sea off its east coast, South Korean media reported, hours before voters in the United States head to the polls to elect a new president.
North Korea and its nuclear and missile programs will be high on the foreign-policy agenda of whoever wins the U.S. election.
South Korea’s military detected the launches from the Sariwon area in the western province of North Hwanghae, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported. The military did not specify the number of missiles, saying an analysis was being carried out.
“While strengthening our military’s monitoring and vigilance in preparation for additional launches, we are maintaining full readiness while closely sharing North Korean ballistic missile data with U.S. and Japanese authorities,” the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a text message.
Last Thursday, North Korea test fired what it said was a new Hwasong-19 intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, in what it called a “milestone” that secured it the “irreversible” status of developing the means to deliver nuclear weapons.
In response to the ICBM launch, South Korea, the United States and Japan staged combined air drills, involving a U.S. B-1B bomber, over waters east of South Korea’s southern island of Jeju on Sunday, the South Korean military said.
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Russia, which seldom if ever comments on North Korean tests, called Tuesday’s North Korean missile tests a justified security measure. Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko said they were a reaction to U.S. provocations, according to Russia’s TASS news agency, as cited by Reuters.
North Korea’s tests come amid rising global alarm about its deployment of thousands of troops to Russia to help with its war in Ukraine, which South Korea and its allies have warned risks triggering a dangerous escalation of the conflict.
South Korea’s defense ministry said on Tuesday that some 10,000 North Korean troops had been deployed in Russia, with a “considerable” number of them dispatched to front-line areas, including Russia’s Kursk region, on the border with Ukraine, Yonhap reported.
The North Korean troops may join Russian forces in combat in Kursk in coming days, the South Korean ministry said.
Ukrainian forces launched an incursion into Russia’s southwestern Kursk region on Aug. 6 and have captured more than two dozen settlements there, Ukraine says.
South Korea’s military warned last week that the North had completed preparations to test a nuclear device, possibly around the time of the U.S. election.
North Korea has conducted six nuclear tests since 2006, all of them underground at the Punggye-ri site. Its last nuclear test was in 2017.
Edited by Mike Firn.
Updated to add comments by Russian deputy foreign minister.