North Korea Fires Ballistic Missiles Despite US Warning Over Nuclear Program

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that two launches had been detected from the North’s eastern coastal Tongchon area around mid-day on Friday.

It said both missiles flew about 230 kilometers (140 miles) at a maximum altitude of 24 kilometers (15 miles).

The statement said South Korea strongly condemns the launches, calling them “a grave provocation” that undermines regional peace and violates UN Security Council resolutions banning any ballistic activities by North Korea, ABCNews reported.

The US Indo Pacific Command said the launches highlighted the “destabilizing impact” of North Korea’s illicit nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.

The Japanese Defense Ministry said it also detected the launches and that the type of missiles used and their flight information were still being analyzed.

South Korea's Foreign Ministry said its top nuclear envoy held separate phone talks with his US and Japanese counterparts soon after the launches.

The back-to-back launches, the North’s first ballistic missile tests since Oct. 14, came on the final day of South Korea’s annual 12-day “Hoguk” field exercises, which also involved an unspecified number of US troops this year. Next week, South Korean and US air forces plan to conduct a large-scale training as well.

North Korea sees such regular drills by Seoul and Washington as practice for launching an attack on the North, though the allies say their exercises are defensive in nature.

Next week’s “Vigilant Storm” aerial drills are to run from Monday to Friday and involve about 140 South Korean warplanes and about 100 US aircraft. The planes include sophisticated fighter jets like F-35 from both nations, South Korea’s Defense Ministry said in a statement earlier Friday.

Since late September, North Korea has launched a barrage of missiles toward the sea in what it called simulated tests of tactical nuclear weapons systems designed to attack South Korean and US targets. North Korea says its testing activities were meant to issue a warning amid a series of South Korea-US military drills.

Tongchon, the launch site for the North’s Friday launches, is about 60 kilometers (37 miles) away from the inter-Korean land border. The area was closer to South Korean territory than any other missile launch site North Korea has used so far this year, according to South Korea’s Defense Ministry.

South Korea and the United States have strongly warned North Korea against using its nuclear weapons preemptively.

The Pentagon’s National Defense Strategy report issued on Thursday stated that any nuclear attack by North Korea against the United States or its allies and partners “will result in the end of that regime.”

“There is no scenario in which the Kim regime could employ nuclear weapons and survive,” the report said. The Pentagon said it will continue to deter North Korean attacks through “forward posture,” including nuclear deterrence, integrated air and missile defenses, and close coordination and interoperability with South Korea.

There are concerns that the North could up the ante in the coming weeks by conducting its first nuclear test since 2017.