Unidentified projectile launched into ocean by North Korea

By: Braden Gerow, Opinion Editor, The Pawprint

The Japanese coast guard was the first to report that North Korea had launched a projectile into the sea, and stated that it could potentially be a ballistic missile. This would go against their current prohibition from such missile tests instated by the United Nations. This would also be their first launch in the new year. 

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) stated that both United States and South Korean intelligence are analyzing the situation to obtain more detail. 

According to BBC, Nobuo Kishi, Japan’s Defence Minister, stated that the projectile flew approximately five hundred kilometers, but another expert claimed that there was no way as of yet to confirm that. 

In the days previous to the launch, the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-Un, announced that the capital, Pyongyang, would keep on strengthening their defences due to the unstable military environment in the shared Korean island, which further adds to the suspicion that this was a missile launch and is cause for concern that 2022 could see many more instances similar to this one.