North Korea fires ballistic missiles leaving Japan, South Korea on edge

North Korea launched two short-range ballistic missiles toward its eastern waters, South Korea's military said, the latest in a string of banned weapons tests carried out by Pyongyang so far this year.

The North Korean launch on Thursday is its first since it failed in an attempt to put its first spy satellite into orbit in late May.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected the North Korean launches from its capital region on Thursday evening. It said South Korea's military boosted its surveillance posture and maintains readiness in close coordination with the United States.

Japan also confirmed the launch, with Tokyo's defence ministry saying Pyongyang had "launched a possible ballistic missile" and the country's coastguard calling on vessels to be vigilant and not approach any fallen objects at sea.

Tokyo said the two missiles landed in waters within its exclusive economic zone, which extends up to 200 nautical miles from Japan's coast, beyond the limits of its territorial waters.

"Two ballistic missiles fell inside the EEZ," said Kimi Onoda, parliamentary vice-minister of defence.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said there were no reports of damage.

The launch came after North Korea's military vowed an unspecified response to South Korean-US drills at a front-line South Korean firing range earlier on Thursday. The exercises were the fifth and last round of South Korean-US firing drills that began last month. This year’s drills were the biggest of their kind since they began in 1977.

“Our response to (the South Korean-U.S. drills) is inevitable,” an unidentified spokesperson of the North Korean Defense Ministry said in a statement carried by state media.

“Our armed forces will fully counter any form of demonstrative moves and provocation of the enemies.”

North Korea has conducted multiple sanctions-busting launches this year, including test-firing its most powerful intercontinental ballistic missiles, and last month attempting to put a military spy satellite into orbit.

In response, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has bolstered defence cooperation with the United States, staging regular large-scale joint military drills, including live-fire "annihilation" exercises which are currently ongoing.

Such exercises infuriate Pyongyang, which regards them as rehearsals for invasion.

Lawsuit

Relations between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest points in years, with diplomacy stalled and Kim Jong Un declaring his country an "irreversible" nuclear power, as well as calling for ramped-up weapons production, including tactical nukes.

On Wednesday, South Korea filed a lawsuit seeking damages from North Korea for the 2020 demolition of a liaison office.

The office was established in 2018 with funding from Seoul at an industrial zone near the border in North Korean territory, as South Korea's then president Moon Jae-in pressed for a diplomatic breakthrough with Pyongyang.

But after that process collapsed and relations deterior ated, North Korea demolished the building in June 2020.

Seoul said it was seeking 44.7 billion won ($35 million) in damages, with the country's Unification Ministry describing the demolition as "clearly an illegal act".

North Korea is likely to ignore any ruling by the court, but there is precedent in South Korea and the United States of damages being awarded against its government.

"Given the timing, the launch seems like the North's expression of discontent or protest at Seoul's legal action seeking compensation on the North's demolition of the Kaesong office," Choi Gil- il, professor of military studies at Sangji University, told AFP news agency.