North Korea's discontent with the US and South Korean military exercises is not likely to go away. Two days after the South Korean president proposed an economic aid program to the Pyongyang regime in exchange for its denuclearization, the country today fired two cruise missiles into the Yellow Sea -between China and Korea-, coinciding with the 100 days of the inauguration of the South Korean president, Yoon Suk-yeol, according to the Yonhap news agency.
Today's is the fourth shot since the inauguration of the Yoon Government. In addition, it would be the first time in two months - since June 5 - that Korea has launched a ballistic missile.
The projectiles were fired from Onchon, in the North Korean province of South Pyongan, according to the same sources cited by Yonhap, who did not give more details of the launches at the moment.
The intelligence services of South Korea and the United States are analyzing the new North Korean weapons test and that the allies maintain their position of military preparation.
The test also occurs in the absence of a few days for the US and South Korea to resume large-scale military maneuvers that they had put on hold to favor rapprochement with the north, a process that was aborted after the failure of the summit on denuclearization of Hanoi in early 2019.
In any case, the use of this type of projectiles by North Korea is not punished by UN sanctions, which focus on the regime's ballistic missiles and nuclear tests.
North Korea has been isolated from the outside since the pandemic began in 2020 and this year has carried out a record number of projectile tests after approving a weapons modernization plan in 2021.
The regime has rejected health aid and offers of dialogue from Washington and Seoul - which are responding in turn with "extended deterrence" - and has already completed preparations for its first nuclear test in five years.
