Seoul reports that North Korea fired a ballistic missile toward the sea

According to South Korea’s military, North Korea launched a short-range ballistic missile on Thursday toward its western coast.

To counter the threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear arsenal, which leader Kim Jong Un has aggressively expanded in recent years despite his country’s deepening economic isolation and pandemic-related challenges, the United States and South Korea are getting ready to hold their most extensive joint military training exercises in years next week.

According to the Joint Chiefs of Staff for the South, the missile was launched around 6:20 p.m. from a region close to the western city of Nampo. No one could immediately tell how far it traveled or where it landed.

In tight coordination with its ally, the U.S., the South Korean military increased its observation of North Korean actions while maintaining “maximum readiness,” according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. According to the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, the launch did not represent an “immediate threat to U.S. soldiers or territory or our allies.” Still, it demonstrated North Korea’s nuclear and missile program’s instability.

The launch followed a warning by Kim’s influential sister on Tuesday that her nation is prepared to take “quick, overwhelming action” against the US and South Korea as the allies step up their military preparation to deal with a growing nuclear threat from North Korea.

Following a year of record-breaking missile tests, North Korea has performed more weapons tests through 2023, including test launches of an intercontinental ballistic missile, short-range missiles, and an alleged long-range cruise missile system.

According to experts, North Korea is attempting to assert its capability to launch nuclear attacks against South Korea and the US mainland through its increased testing activities and threats.

According to observers, Kim is attempting to pressure the United States into recognizing the North as a nuclear state to extract desperately needed economic concessions from a position of strength and because he views his nuclear arsenal as his most extensive guarantee of survival.

As a result of differences over the lifting of severe U.S.-led sanctions against North Korea in exchange for the North taking steps to wind down its nuclear and missile programs, diplomatic relations between the two countries have halted since 2019.

The South Korean and US forces confirmed last week that their most extensive springtime field exercises, last conducted in 2018, would return along with computer-simulated command post training from March 13–23.

As a show of force, the United States has also lately sent advanced warplanes like the long-range bombers B-1B and B-52 to train alongside South Korean aircraft. This has sparked criticism from North Korea, which labels the partners’ joint drills as invasion rehearsals.