North Korea missile launch no threat, U.S. says

The United States Indo-Pacific Command on Thursday condemned North Korea’s latest ballistic missile launch and said it was consulting with both Japan and South Korea. Although the launch appeared to be over, U.S. officials were still monitoring the situation on Thursday morning. The launch did not appear to present a concrete threat to the United States or its allies, Indo-Pacific Command said.

Why did North Korea launch this missile? The launch came on the heels of a meeting in Washington between U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and South Korean Minister of Defense Kim Yong-hyun about ways to modernize and deepen the countries’ military alliance. U.S. and Japanese news media characterized the launch as a test of what seemed to be the farthest-flying missile launched yet by North Korea.

The Pyongyang government in recent weeks has taken a belligerent posture, destroying several inter-Korean roadways and sending trash balloons across the demilitarized zones and into South Korea, according to Seoul’s Ministry of National Defense. Seoul said it was working with the United States and Japan to respond to North Korean aggression.

The United States and South Korea have also expressed concern about Pyongyang sending troops, weapons, and ammunition to Russia. South Korean officials celebrated on Tuesday that the United States and South Korea’s military relationship was now a nuclear-based alliance, not just one based on shared conventional military capacities.

Dig deeper: Read my report in The Sift about how the United States believes there are as many as 10,000 North Korean troops inside Russian borders.