After a few days, North Korea has launched multiple cruise missiles again!
On February 2, Russia's Sputnik news network reported that at around 11 o'clock (10 o'clock Beijing time) that day, North Korea again launched several cruise missiles in the direction of the Yellow Sea. This was the second cruise missile launch by North Korea in just three days after January 30, and the fourth time that North Korea has launched a cruise missile in just 10 days since January 24.
On the same day, Yonhap News Agency reported that the South Korean Joint Staff Headquarters (Joint Staff) said that North Korea launched a number of cruise missiles into the western waters of the Korean Peninsula at about 11 a.m. that day, and the missile flight time was only a few tens of minutes, and the flight distance was relatively short. South Korea and the United States attach great importance to it, and while they are on heightened alert, intelligence agencies are stepping up data analysis.
North Korea has recently intensively displayed strategic cruise missiles and launched them using various platforms such as mobile launchers, submarines, ships, and fighter jets, with the aim of demonstrating its ability to strike against South Korea and the United States. And there is another sensitive point of North Korea's missile launch, that is, South Korea and the United States are currently organizing the first special operations exercise in 2024.
On February 2, the South Korean Army announced on February 2 that the special forces of South Korea and the United States have been conducting the first joint special operations exercise of the year at the Rodriguez base of the US military stationed in South Korea in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province, since January 22. The 13-day special operations exercise was attended by the Polaris Group under the command of the Flying Tiger Brigade of the South Korean Army Special Operations Command and the 1st Special Operations Regiment of the U.S. Army. The main purpose of the exercise is to familiarize the special forces of the two sides with the process of joint operations and improve the individual combat skills of the members of the special forces.
For a long time, the United States and South Korea fantasized about carrying out decapitation operations against North Korea, and the special forces of the two countries were the main force in carrying out targeted killings. North Korea's first cruise missile launch took place on the 24th, just three days after the start of the US-South Korea joint special operations exercise.
Not only that, on February 1, Yonhap News Agency disclosed that the South Korean Air Force will participate in the "Counter the North 2024" multinational air force joint exercise held at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, USA, from the 3rd to the 16th of this month. More than 80 aircraft and more than 3,000 soldiers from six countries, including the United States, Japan, South Korea, Australia, France, and Canada, participated in the exercise, including fighter planes such as F-2, F-15C, and F-16C, and transport planes such as C-130 and CN-235.
Therefore, in this context, North Korea can only fight back against the joint military exercises of the United States and South Korea by launching cruise missiles to convey to them the unyielding attitude of North Korea. On 30 January, the Korean People's Army conducted a training exercise to launch the Arrow-2 strategic cruise missile in the waters west of the Korean Peninsula. "Arrow-2" is a long-range cruise missile recently developed by North Korea, with a range of about 1800~2000 kilometers, which can carry the "Volcano-31" tactical nuclear warhead. On January 24 and 28, North Korea also launched new cruise missiles "Arrow-3-31" and "Arrow-3-31" into the western and eastern waters of the Korean Peninsula, respectively.
In addition, Yonhap News Agency reported on January 19 that in order to counter the joint maritime exercise organized by South Korea, the United States and Japan near Jeju, the Institute of Underwater Weapon Systems of the North Korean Academy of Defense Sciences conducted an important test of the "Tsunami-5-23" underwater nuclear weapons system in the waters of the East China Sea of North Korea.
With the escalation of U.S. and South Korean military operations on the peninsula and North Korea's non-stop missile firing, the situation on the peninsula has become more tense than ever, and whether the two sides can exercise restraint and patience is the key to avoiding war on the peninsula.