TOKYO—North Korea launched two ballistic missiles eastward early Wednesday, according to the armies of Japan and South Korea, just hours after a US ballistic missile submarine docked in a South Korean port for the first time in four decades.
According to the Japanese Defense Ministry, both missiles looked to have landed outside of Japan's exclusive economic zone.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) of South Korea urged the North to stop such launches.
“We strongly condemn North Korea’s successive ballistic missile launches as grave provocative acts that undermine the peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula as well as the international community, and are a clear violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions,” the JCS said in a statement.
The US military stated that it was aware of the missile launches and was in constant contact with its friends and partners.
The launches do not appear to constitute an imminent danger to the United States or its allies, but they do underline the destabilizing consequences of North Korea's illegal weapons development, according to the United States. The Indo-Pacific Command issued a statement.
According to Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada, the first missile achieved an altitude of 50 kilometers (31 miles) and flew 550 kilometers, while the second attained an altitude of 50 kilometers and traveled 600 kilometers.
Japan had registered a diplomatic protest over the missile launches, he added.
The launch came about a week after North Korea conducted a test of its newest Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile, which Pyongyang described as a threat to the US and other rivals.
Also on Tuesday, a US soldier facing disciplinary action ran into North Korea over the inter-Korean border. The soldier is thought to be in North Korean custody, sparking a new crisis between the two adversaries.
“North Korea’s latest firing of ballistic missiles is probably unrelated to an American soldier crossing the inter-Korean border, but such an incident doesn’t help matters either,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.
North Korea "undoubtedly opposes" the formation of a new US-South Korean nuclear war preparation group, as well as the arrival of a US nuclear ballistic missile submarine, he added.
