N. KOREA FIRES BALLISTIC MISSILES

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North Korea fired three ballistic missiles toward the East Sea Wednesday morning. One of them is suspected to be an ICBM.

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South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff announced it detected a ballistic missile launched towards the East Sea from Pyongyang’s Sunan area at around 6 a.m. Wednesday local time. That was followed by two more missiles fired at around 6:37 and 6:42 a.m. respectively. According to the analysis by the JCS, the first launched missile is believed to be an ICBM with a flight distance of around 360km and altitude of some 540km. The second missile was lost after reaching around 20km in altitude. The third missile is believed to be a short range ballistic missile with a flight distance of around 760km and an altitude of some 60km. The military stepped up vigilance and said it maintains a steadfast readiness posture in close coordination with the U.S. Wednesday’s provocation marks the regime's 17th show of force this year. Pyongyang unveiled a range of missiles on April 25 during a military parade to mark the Army’s founding anniversary. Such weapons included two types of supersonic missiles, a new SLBM sporting a longer warhead and the Hwasong-17 ICBM which the North claims to have successfully tested. There has been speculation the weapons flaunted during the parade could be put to use. On May 12, three short range ballistic missiles were fired from the Sunan area using a suspected supersized multiple rocket launcher. More recently, ahead of the South Korea-US summit, Seoul and Washington detected signs of an impending ICBM launch such as the injection of fuel. With the latest provocation coming on the heels of President Joe Biden’s visit to South Korea and Japan, pundits say North Korea may be staging an armed protest over the outcome of summit talks held in Seoul and Tokyo.