Hyonhee Shin

SEOUL (Reuters.) -North Korea has fired three ballistic missiles towards the east coast of the country on Thursday. It is the latest in a series of moves by an isolated nation trying to expand its arsenal since it reported a COVID-19 occurrence.

Japan’s Coastguard has confirmed North Korea’s launch of a missile ballistic, inciting the military. NHK public broadcaster said that the projectile seemed to be outside Japan’s exclusive economic zones.

According to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, three short-range, ballistic missiles were launched from Pyongyang’s Sunan, a region in the capital of North Korea. The international airport is also located there. It was reported that the North fired its biggest intercontinental missile (ICBM) on March 24, Hwasong-17.

It was the first firebombing since Yoon Seok-yeol, the South Korean conservative president, was inaugurated this week. Yoon has been vocal in his opposition to North Korean weapons development.

Yoon’s bureau stated it called a meeting immediately of its national security committee.

This launch was the 16th North-known weapons test of this year. It also occurred hours after North reported its first coronavirus epidemic, declaring “gravest National Emergency” and imposing a lockdown.

On Saturday’s last weapon test, North deployed a submarine-launched, ballistic missile. It has been developing this type of weaponry aggressively in recent years.

Kim Jong Un was the North Korean leader and vowed, late last month, to speed up the nation’s nuclear arsenal building amid stagnant denuclearisation negotiations with the United States.

According to U.S. officials and South Korean officials, Pyongyang may conduct its first nuke test since 2017.