According to South Korea’s military, North Korean forces set their new personal record for the highest number of short-range missile launches in a single day with a barrage of missile tests on Wednesday.
The North Korean side fired as many as 23 short-range missiles, the South Korean Defense Ministry announced in a statement shared with CNN. North Korean missiles landed off both the east and west coasts of the Korean Peninsula.
According to Reuters, one missile landed within 40 miles of South Korea’s coastline. The South Korean military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said that particular missile was the first to land near South Korea’s territorial waters since the Korean Peninsula was split in two in 1945. The North Korean missile landed outside of South Korean territorial waters but still crossed over the southern side of the Northern Limit Line (NLL), which serves as a maritime demarcation line between North and South Korea.
This record-setting missile barrage is the latest show of force from North Korea. The North Korean military has conducted a string of weapons tests in recent weeks.
North Korean forces conducted a test of two ballistic missiles the day before Vice President Kamala Harris was set to visit the demilitarized zone (DMZ), which serves as the border and buffer area between North and South Korea.
Just days after preempting Harris’ DMZ visit with those missile tests, North Korean forces fired another ballistic missile which flew over Japan. That incident was the first time the North had fired a missile over Japan since 2017.
Later on in October, North Korean forces also fired off at least 250 artillery shells into the waters off the east and west sides of the Korean Peninsula.
The U.S. condemned North Korea’s missile launches on Wednesday.
“The United States condemns the D.P.R.K.’s ballistic missile launches and its reckless decision to fire a missile below the de facto maritime boundary with the Republic of Korea,” a U.S. State Department spokesperson told South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (D.P.R.K.).”
