Pyongyang Fires Short-Range Missiles In Response To US-SK Drills

The South Korean military has confirmed that North Korea has fired several short-range missiles into the Sea of Japan, the second ballistic missile test within the past four weeks with the last coming on 22 April, Last week Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the testing of a new multiple rocket launcher system. The launches come after South Korea and the United States held jet exercises, with AP reporting "two South Korean F-35As and two U.S. F-22 Raptors were mobilized for combined aerial exercises over the central region of South Korea. North Korea is extremely sensitive to the deployment of sophisticated U.S. aircraft."

• The missile tests come at a time of heightened tensions on the peninsula, and between North Korea and the West more broadly. Accusations that North Korea has sold weapons to Russia for use in its invasion of Ukraine have led to a forceful pushback from Pyongyang.
• Kim's sister, Kim Yon Jong - an outspoken critic of the West and the South Korean gov't who has seemingly gained increasing prominence in recent years - said, “The hostile forces are misleading the public opinion with a false rumor that the weapon systems produced by the DPRK are ‘for export to Russia...We have no intention to export our military technical capabilities to any country or open them to the public,”