North Korea fires short-range ballistic missile ahead of US-South drills

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a statement on Thursday that it had detected the launch from the North’s western port city of Nampo at 6:20 p.m. local time.

“While strengthening its monitoring and vigilance, our military is maintaining a full readiness posture in close cooperation with the United States,” the JCS stated.

The latest missile launch, the North’s fifth ballistic missile of the year, came as Washington and Seoul are preparing to kick off the so-called Freedom Shield military drills on March 13-23, despite Pyongyang’s  threats to take “unprecedently” strong action against such training. 

Last year, North Korea fired roughly 75 missiles, an annual record, in 36 separate days of testing.

The Thursday launch adds to a barrage of rockets the North has fired in recent weeks, including an intercontinental ballistic missile (IBM) designed to deliver a nuclear warhead to the mainland USA. Intelligence officials in Washington assessed on Wednesday that Pyongyang had “no intention of abandoning” its weapons program.

The joint military drills are to proceed concurrently with the large-scale joint field training exercise called the Warrior Shield FTX. The field trainings will also include a combined amphibious drill.

In apparent shows of force against alleged threats posed by North Korea, the US recently deployed high-profile military assets to the Korean Peninsula, including B-1B and B-52H strategic bombers as well as a nuclear-powered submarine.

North Korea, which has been under harsh sanctions by the US and the United Nations Security Council for years over its nuclear and ballistic-missile programs, launched an unprecedented number of missiles in 2022, including its most advanced intercontinental ballistic missile ever.

Over 28,500 American troops are based in South Korea as a legacy of the 1950-1953 Korean War, which concluded in an armistice rather than a peace treaty, meaning that the two neighbors are still technically at war.

Seoul, which has been rattled by increased test-fires by North Korea, is now trying to boost its military alliance with the US and deepen cooperation with Japan.