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This file photo shows an undated missile launch by North Korea. (Yonhap)

In response to the Phnom Penh Statement adopted by the leaders of South Korea, the US and Japan, North Korea launched a ballistic missile on Thursday. North’s response appears to be the opening salvo of its intent to counter the tightening partnership between Korea, the US and Japan with force.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said that it detected one short-range ballistic missile launched by North Korea from Wonsan, Kangwon Province, into the East Sea at 10:48 am on Thursday. The missile reportedly had a flight distance of 240 kilometers, a max altitude of 47 kilometers, and a speed of around Mach 4.

The Joint Chiefs reported that South Korean and US intelligence authorities are currently analyzing the details.

North Korea launched a ballistic missile four days after the announcement of the Phnom Penh joint statement made by South Korea, the US and Japan, and eight days after it fired a short-range ballistic missile from Sukcheon, South Pyongan Province, toward the East Sea on Nov. 9.

South Korea and the US had conducted a joint missile defense exercise earlier in the day.

The Joint Chiefs called the series of ballistic missile launches by North Korea “a grave provocation that harms peace and stability,” as well as “a clear violation of UN resolutions.”

They “strongly condemned” the actions and called for the North to “immediately desist.”

North Korea’s short-range ballistic missile launch took place a mere hour and 40 minutes after North Korea’s foreign minister, Choe Son-hui, gave a stern warning.

In a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Choe said, “The keener the U.S. is on the ‘bolstered offer of extended deterrence’ to its allies and the more they intensify provocative and bluffing military activities on the Korean peninsula and in the region, the fiercer the DPRK’s military counteraction will be.”

Choe clarified the North’s position as a “serious warning stand” in response to the trilateral summit between the South, the US, and Japan during which the three “talked about ‘bolstered offer of extended deterrence’ and ‘strong and resolute counteraction’, describing the DPRK’s legitimate and just military counteractions, incited by their war drills for aggression, as ‘provocation’.”

She went on to say that this trilateral summit will “result in bringing the situation on the Korean peninsula to an unpredictable phase,” and that the US will be “well aware that it is gambling for which it will certainly regret.”

Choe’s statement is North Korea’s first official response to the trilateral summit between Yoon, Biden and Kishida. Seeing how it has usually been the foreign ministry’s spokesman who announced statements directed to the US, it can be said that by having the foreign minister make a statement, they have raised the level of official response. It has been a year and eight months since Choe made a statement in her name, the last time being on March 18, 2021.

The Phnom Penh statement, which was announced after the leaders of the three countries had a meeting on Sunday, directly criticizes North Korea for their ballistic missile launches, and promises that the three countries will share North Korean missile warning information in real time and strengthen extended deterrence.

Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies, commented, “The North’s ballistic missile launch carries the intent of showing that Choe’s words were no empty threats.”

By Lee Je-hun, senior staff writer; Shin Hyeong-cheol, staff reporter

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