"North Korea launches several short-range ballistic missiles"...Another provocation in 8 days.

[Anchor]
North Korea has launched several short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea.

Eight days after launching a hypersonic mid- to long-range ballistic missile on the 6th, it has launched a missile provocation again.

I'm reporter Lee Jong Won.

[Reporter]
The Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea fired several short-range ballistic missiles around 9:30 a.m. in the Ganggye area of Jagang Province, North Korea.

It was found that it flew 250 kilometers and fell on the East Sea.

The military strongly condemns obvious provocations that seriously threaten peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, stressing that it maintains its ability and readiness to overwhelmingly respond to any provocation.

[Lee Sung-joon / Joint Chiefs of Staff Press Director: We need time to make a comprehensive judgment. And it takes time to analyze, so those things leave that room.

North Korea's missile provocation is the second in eight days this year after the 6th.

Immediately after the provocation on the 6th, North Korean media reported that it succeeded in test-firing a new hypersonic mid- to long-range ballistic missile, IRBM.

At the time, the South Korean military evaluated the possibility of deception as high, but North Korea said it flew 12 times faster than the speed of sound and landed in the target sea on the East Sea. In particular, it also showed abnormal mobility, such as shooting the peak altitude twice.

Considering the range of mid- to long-range ballistic missiles, it was interpreted that they showed off their ability to strike U.S. troops in Japan or U.S. territory Guam.

Analysts say that North Korea, which resumed missile provocations for the first time in more than two months, has launched another provocation for the first time in eight days, which is related to a series of recent reports on North Korean troops dispatched to Russia.

[Cho Han-beom / Senior Researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification]: The possibility of normal training, the possibility of performance tests, and the diversification of various reports due to the dispatch of troops to Russia and the Soviet Union appear to be such intentions.]

At the same time, with less than a week left before the launch of the second Trump administration, it is also interpreted as an intention to show off its presence and start pressing the U.S.

I'm YTN's Lee Jong Won.

Filmmaker: Woo Young-taek
Video editing: Seo Young-mi