‘Test and challenge’ in the region: North Korea fired eight ballistic missiles on Sunday off its east coast

According to South Korea’s General Staff, at least eight missiles were launched from the Sunan sector in Pyongyang, the North’s capital.

Following the shooting, South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol called a meeting of the National Security Council and ordered “the expansion of the deterrence force of South Korea and the United States and further strengthening of the united defense posture.”

For the South Korean presidential office, the National Security Council considered that these shootings were “Test and challengePyongyang faces the security strategy of the new South Korean administration, which took office last month.

Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said the shooting should not be tolerated. Officials from the United States, South Korea and Japan met in Seoul on Friday for talks on North Korea, amid indications that the country is preparing to conduct a nuclear test for the first time since 2017.

US Representative Sung Kim met his South Korean and Japanese counterparts Kim Jun and Funakoshi Takehiro after a US report said Pyongyang was preparing for the Punggye-ri test site for its seventh nuclear test.

This show of force by North Korea comes the day after the joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea. Exercises involving a US aircraft carrier for the first time in more than four years.