North Korea launched a series of short-range ballistic missiles early this morning, South Korea’s military said, its second weapons test in five days, hours before the US presidential election.

The launch of “short-range ballistic missiles” towards the East Sea, as it is called on the Korean peninsula and also known as the Sea of ​​Japan, was detected at 07:30 (local time; 00:30 Greek time), the national general staff said. defense of South Korea.

Anticipating “new launches”, South Korea’s armed forces have “stepped up their surveillance and vigilance”, the staff in Seoul added, adding that it was sharing information with Tokyo and Washington.

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba confirmed to reporters the launch of “ballistic missiles” that were “estimated to have landed outside” of Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

Last Thursday, nuclear-armed North Korea announced it had test-fired its new solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the most advanced it has developed.

It was the first show of force of its kind by North Korea since it was accused by Ukraine, its Western allies and Seoul of sending thousands of troops to Russia.

The launch came hours after the US and South Korean defense ministers demanded that Pyongyang withdraw its troops from Russian territory, as the US Pentagon says some 10,000 are preparing to take part in operations against Ukrainian armed forces. at war with the Russian military since February 2022.

The day before Sunday, South Korea, Japan and the US conducted a joint air exercise involving a strategic bomber in retaliation for the ICBM launch.

US B-1B bombers, South Korean F-15K and KF-16 fighters, as well as Japanese F-2 fighters participated in the exercises.

Military exercises of this kind always provoke anger in North Korea, which sees them as rehearsals for an invasion of its territory.

For Kim Yo-yong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the high schools were a new indication of “the aggressive nature of the country’s most hostile and dangerous” adversary, “absolute proof of the validity and urgency of the line for development of nuclear forces (…) that we have chosen and are implementing,” according to the official North Korean news agency KCNA.

She warned that any major change “in the balance of power (…) on the Korean peninsula will mean war.”

Experts believe Pyongyang’s series of weapons tests may be part of an effort to divert attention from North Korea’s alleged troop deployment in Russia, which has caused concern as today’s US election approaches.

Russia and North Korea, which see the US as an enemy that threatens their very existence, have tightened relations since Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The two countries notably signed a defense agreement, which provides that one will defend the other in the event of an attack, during a June visit by the Russian president to Pyongyang.

Ukraine and their Western allies have long said that North Korea supplies ammunition — shells and missiles — to the Russian military. Now, according to the US Pentagon, thousands of military personnel have also been sent to Russia to train and fight against Ukraine alongside the Russian military.

South Korea, a major arms exporter, is now considering sending equipment directly to Ukraine in retaliation, despite Seoul’s decades-long policy not to supply arms to states involved in active wars.

North Korea has neither confirmed nor denied the presence of units of its armed forces in Russia, but in the first official comment published by state media in late October, a deputy foreign minister said that if such a deployment took place, it would comply with international law.