Was North Korea’s latest missile launch meant to sway US election, test weapons for Ukraine war?

The missile launches come after Pyongyang warned Seoul and Washington of a ‘dear price’ for joint military exercises

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People watch the news at a station in Seoul, South Korea, According to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, North Korea launched several ballistic missiles into the East Sea on September 12. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 8:00am, 13 Sep 2024

North Korea test-fired short-range missiles for the first time in 73 days in a sabre-rattling move seen to be aimed at the lead-up to the US presidential election and also test weapons that could potentially be deployed in the Ukraine war.

Thursday’s launch, which involved multiple ballistic missiles, came a week after Pyongyang warned that Seoul and Washington would pay a “dear price” for joint military exercises.

The missiles were launched near Pyongyang’s Sunan airport and travelled roughly 360km east before landing in the Sea of Japan, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, who condemned the launch as a “provocative act that gravely threatens the peace and stability” of the Korean peninsula, vowing a “stern” response.

It also said South Korea and the United States were closely monitoring the North’s military activities.

Lim Eul-chul, a senior researcher at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies (IFES), suggested that North Korea had been focused on recovering from recent flooding that devastated its northern regions.

“The North is now trying to catch up with its weapons tests that were delayed due to the natural disasters,” Lim told This Week in Asia.