This past Wednesday, October 5, 2022, the United States and South Korea launched individual test-fire missiles as a response to North Korea sending an unknowing missile over Japan. North Korea made the ballistic launch just one day prior on October 4, initiating its neighboring companies to send a combined total of four missiles off the coast of the Korean Peninsula and safely into the Yellow Sea. Reports claim that this was North Korea’s second concealed utilization of test-launching their weapons over Japan.
Taking precautionary measures in light of North Korea’s recent actions, Albania, the United States, Norway, Britain, Ireland, and France all insisted on an emergency gathering of the United Nations Security Council; they did not come to a forward public decision – Rightly so, due to the recent realization that North Korea has initiated over 40 cruise and ballistic missiles throughout 20 fires in 2022 alone. North Korea’s Foreign Ministry released an official statement on Thursday that claimed “the redeployment of the Reagan strike group posed a “serious threat to the stability of the situation on the Korean peninsula and in its vicinity.”
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs Staff made an announcement on the recent movements after the launches: “The re-dispatch of the carrier strike group to the Korean Peninsula is highly unusual and shows the resolute will of the South Korea-US alliance to strengthen the alliance’s readiness posture against North Korea’s consecutive provocations and to respond decisively to any kind of provocation and threat from North Korea, according to the JCS. “This action is destabilizing and shows the DPRK’s blatant disregard of United Nations Security Council resolutions and international safety norms.”