North Korea fires fourth ballistic missile this week as it escalates tensions

North Korea fired more ballistic missiles off its east coast on Saturday - the fourth launch of the week - as it continues to increase tensions in record missile test year

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Image: KCNA VIA KNS/AFP via Getty Image)

North Korea fired more ballistic missiles off its east coast on Saturday - the fourth launch this week - as it continues to escalate tensions.

The launch comes after the navies of South Korea, the United States and Japan held trilateral anti-submarine drills on Friday for the first time in five years, and follows a visit by Vice US President Kamala Harris in South Korea this week.< /p>

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff reported the new launch while the Japanese Coast Guard said there were at least two suspected ballistic missile tests by Pyongyang. NHK, citing a government source, said a second missile landed outside Japan's exclusive economic zone.

North Korea fired missiles before and after Harris' visit to South Korea, extending a record pace of weapons testing this year as it increases the threat of a credible nuclear power that can strike United States and its allies.

Pyongyang also carried out the first intercontinental ballistic missile test for the first time since 2017.

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Picture:

KCNA via KNS/AFP via Getty Image)

Analysts see the increased pace of testing as an effort to build operational weapons, as well as taking advantage of a world distracted by the Ukraine conflict and other crises to “normalize” its testing.

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"Despite North Korea's internal weaknesses and international isolation, it is rapidly modernizing its weapons and profiting from a world divided by US-China rivalry and Russia's annexation of more Ukrainian territory" , said Leif-Eric Easley, professor at Ewha. Seoul University.

"Kim's regime is also playing hardball with the Yoon administration while South Korean politics is hampered by infighting."

Nuclear testing and ballistic missile launches by North Korea have long been banned by the Security Council.

The military did not provide details on the range, height and speed of the missiles.