North Korea fired several ballistic missiles toward the East Sea on the 12th, four days after South Korea's first successful test launch of a domestically developed hypersonic missile. The launches are read as a show of force.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said it "detected several ballistic missiles launched from the area around Pyongyang toward the East Sea from around 9:20 a.m. on the 12th." It was North Korea's 16th ballistic missile launch this year and the first in nine days, following one on the 3rd.
Jang Do-young, the Joint Chiefs' public affairs chief, said that "based on the analysis so far, (North Korea) fired several ballistic missiles of different types, and one type is assessed to have flown more than 900 kilometers." Military authorities in South Korea and the United States are conducting a detailed analysis to determine the exact specifications. The Joint Chiefs said South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities "have been tracking and sharing related movements from the early stage of the launches and maintain the capability and posture to respond overwhelmingly to any provocation."
The launches came four days after South Korea successfully test-fired a domestically developed hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV). On the 8th, with President Lee Jae-myung observing, the government conducted the first test launch of a domestic HGV from a sea barge at the Agency for Defense Development's Anheung test site. Hypersonic missiles fly at speeds above Mach 5 and are hard to track or intercept because of their irregular maneuvering, earning them the label of a battlefield "game changer."
North Korea's launches appear to be a show of force in response. Jang added that the military is "analyzing them as a deliberate display of missile capability, including a show of force in response to our successful hypersonic missile test launch."
The National Security Office held an emergency security review meeting attended by officials from the Ministry of National Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Kang Yu-jung, senior presidential spokesperson, said in a written briefing that the meeting "reviewed once again South Korea's readiness posture and the security situation in relation to North Korea's recent series of ballistic missile launches, and stressed the need to leave nothing lacking in national security." The office said North Korea's repeated ballistic missile launches violate U.N. Security Council resolutions and are grave acts that do not help manage the current situation on the Korean Peninsula, and it urged an immediate halt.