According to the researcher, the missile tests are a deliberate provocation intended to increase political tension on the Korean peninsula.
On Wednesday morning, North Korea tested South Korea’s nerves with its extensive missile tests.
The country launched more than 20 ballistic missiles, one of which hit close to South Korea’s territorial waters for the first time.
President of South Korea Yoon Suk-yeol described the test, which hit less than 60 kilometers from the east coast, as an incursion into South Korean territory.
South Korea responded to the provocation by sending three air-launched missiles towards the North Sea border of the Koreas.
North Korea carried out the tests just hours after the country had demanded that the United States and South Korea stop their joint military exercises. North Korea has called this week’s exercises aggressive and provocative.
“The tests celebrate North Korea’s upcoming nuclear test”
A North Korean researcher interviewed by the news agency AFP Ahn Chan-il according to the missile tests are a deliberate provocation intended to increase political tension on the Korean peninsula.
The leader of North Korea Kim Jong-un wants to show, according to the researcher, that the country is capable of destroying South Korea if it wants to.
– The tests pre-celebrate North Korea’s upcoming nuclear test. They also seem like practical tests for the placement of tactical nuclear weapons, says Ahn.
North Korea has been testing its missiles diligently this year, and the West has speculated that the country would prepare a nuclear test for the first time in five years.
The Koreas are still technically at war, as the 1950-1953 war between them ended in an armistice instead of peace.
On land, the Korean border is precisely marked and strongly fortified. Wednesday’s missile test crossed a UN-defined maritime boundary that North Korea has not officially recognized.
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