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This photo, released by North Korean state media, shows the North Korean military firing a missile during drills held between Sept. 25 to Oct. 9, 2022. (KCNA/Yonhap)

North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the waters off its eastern coast on Wednesday.

The launches appeared to be a reaction to the arrival in Busan of a US nuclear-powered ballistic missile-carrying submarine (SSBN).

The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff announced Monday that the South Korean military had detected two short-range ballistic missiles launched by North Korea toward the East Sea from the Sunan area between approximately 3:30 and 3:46 am.

“The North Korean ballistic missiles each flew for approximately 550 km before landing in the East Sea,” it said, adding that South Korean and US intelligence authorities were “comprehensively assessing the specifics.”

The latest ballistic missile launches came a week after the North’s launch of its solid-fueled intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the Hwasong-18, on July 12. They appeared to be a response to recent events with the first meeting of the South Korea-US Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) taking place the day before, as well as the first South Korea visit in 42 years by a US nuclear-powered SSBN capable of striking any part of North Korea with a nuclear missile.

On Tuesday, the South Korean Ministry of National Defense reported that the USS Kentucky (SSBN-737), an Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine, had arrived that afternoon at its North Korea operations base.

North Korea has been ratcheting up the intensity of its response with the missile test launches and successive statements by officials.

Ahead of the first NCG meeting, Kim Yo-jong, the politically powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, issued a press statement Monday in which she warned that the US “should know that its bolstered extended deterrence system and excessively extended military alliance system, a threatening entity, will only make the DPRK go farther away from the negotiating table desired by it.”

The Joint Chiefs referred to North Korea’s successive ballistic missile launches as a “serious provocation that is detrimental to the peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula and international community.”

“We strongly condemn this clear violation of UN Security Council resolutions, which must be halted immediately,” it continued.

“In preparation for additional provocations for North Korea, the South Korean military will continue tracking and monitoring related trends in close coordination with the US, while maintaining a robust readiness posture based on the capability to respond overwhelmingly to any North Korean provocation,” it said.

By Shin Hyeong-cheol, staff reporter

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