In yet another escalation, North Korea launched its most missiles in a single day on Wednesday, including one that landed further south than ever before and one which ended up just 60km off the South Korean coast. Previously, at the start of October and for the first time since 2017, North Korea fired a missile over Japan, prompting the government to issue an alert for some citizens to seek cover. According to reports, the missile travelled 4,500km, finally falling into the Pacific Ocean. With such a range, the missile tested would be able to strike the US island of Guam if it was fired on another trajectory.
As this infographic shows, North Korean missile tests have intensified in 2022. They were already at a record high by June and have since risen even further. As the data from the Nuclear Threat Initiative shows, posturing from North Korea has been on the rise again after a test-less 2018. In 2018 and early 2019, two summits between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Trump brought tests to a halt but eventually rendered no concrete results as rhetoric between the two nations grew heated again quickly.
2019 ended up seeing more missile tests than 2017 when North Korea’s demonstration of its ability to reach the U.S. with its missiles led to a diplomatic crisis. Intercontinental or even intermediate missile tests were not witnessed from 2018 to 2021, but there have already been successful tests of each this year so far.
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