On Thursday, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported, North Korea fired two projectiles into the sea east of the country. This month, it would be the sixth time that the country has fired a projectile.
The South Korean military says it is likely that two ballistic missiles are involved. North Korea’s firing of these missiles violates UN Security Council resolutions.
On January 14 and 17, the country is believed to have also fired ballistic missiles. On January 5 and 11, hypersonic missiles were fired. Last Tuesday, the country fired a cruise missile. Unlike ballistic missile testing, cruise missile testing is not covered by United Nations sanctions on North Korea.
Since 2019, the country has not carried out that many rockets launch in a short period of time. As a result, negotiations between North Korea on the one hand and South Korea and the US on the other have stalled.
The tests come at a sensitive time for the region as China, the North Korean regime’s only major ally, hosts the Winter Olympics in February and South Korea’s presidential election in March.