Missiles and fighters. Kim returned to challenge South Korea and the United States

Two short-range missiles and 12 other North Korean military aircraft, eight fighter jets and four bombers are believed to have conducted live-fire exercises, all designed to fire maneuvers along the Demilitarized Zone demarcation line. Kim Jong-un returned to listen and watch, two days after the launch of an intermediate-range ballistic missile into the Sea of ​​Japan — the first since 2017 — that flew over Japanese soil. It was another signal for the North Korean dictator to launch in the region, a countermeasure to recent military exercises by South Korea and the United States, which, according to Seoul’s Joint Staff Command, “responded with an overwhelming response. ». For an effort “unprecedented in the past year” aimed at following North Korean jets, about 30 South Korean warplanes were immediately stationed in the area.

Tensions continue to rise alarmingly, but the North Korean leader said yesterday at the UN. He assured the full support of China and Russia at Wednesday’s session of the Security Council, hastily called and ended with nothing. The US has accused Beijing and Moscow of supporting Kim and shielding him from harsh economic sanctions. “North Korea enjoys the full protection of two members of this council,” US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield thundered. The Chinese response was terse: the Council “must play a constructive role rather than relying only on rhetoric or pressure. The launches are linked to a series of military exercises in the region ». According to Russian Deputy Ambassador Anna Evstigneeva, “the introduction of new sanctions leads to dead ends and zero results”.