North Korea launches ballistic missile toward East Sea amid mounting tensions

The rogue state fired a ballistic missile toward the East Sea just hours after it got a warning from Washington over its alleged involvement in Russia’s Ukraine plot.

North Korea has fired an unidentified ballistic missile toward the East Sea, South Korea’s military said, according to the Yonhap news agency.

Japan’s defence minister said North Korea had fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) class.

“Around 7:11 am today (2217 GMT Wednesday) North Korea launched at least one ICBM-class ballistic missile from an area near Pyongyang toward the northeast,” Gen Nakatani told reporters, adding that its flying distance was estimated at about 1000 kilometres (620 miles) and its highest altitude more than 7000 kilometres.

Today’s launch came just hours after US and South Korean defense chiefs called on Pyongyang to withdraw its troops from Russia, where Washington says some 10,000 have been deployed for possible action against Ukrainian forces.

“I call upon them to withdraw their troops out of Russia,” US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said at the Pentagon, speaking alongside his South Korean counterpart Kim Yong-hyun, who urged the “immediate withdrawal” of an estimated 10,000 North Korean soldiers.

Mr Austin said the United States will “continue to work with allies and partners to discourage Russia from employing these troops in combat,” but warned Moscow is likely to do so.

The White House has said that Pyongyang’s forces would become “legitimate military targets” if they fight against Ukraine, and Mr Austin echoed that stance.

US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin at The Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. Picture: Getty Images via AFP

South Korean Defence Minister Kim Yong Hyun at The Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. Picture: Getty Images via AFP

If North Korean troops “are fighting alongside Russian soldiers in this conflict and attacking Ukrainian soldiers, Ukrainian soldiers have the right to defend themselves,” Mr Austin said.

They would be “co-belligerents, and you have every reason to believe that … they will be killed and wounded as a result of battle,” he added.

President Biden didn’t hold back when asked if Ukraine should respond.

“If they go into Ukraine, yes,” he said without hesitation.

Asked if there are plans for South Korea to indirectly supply munitions to Ukraine, Mr Yong-hyun said: “At the current moment, nothing is determined.”

The Pentagon said the previous day that a “small number” of North Korean troops have already been deployed in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops have been conducting a ground offensive since August.

Experts have said that in return for these forces, North Korea is likely aiming to acquire military technology, ranging from surveillance satellites to submarines, plus possible security guarantees from Moscow.

Russia and North Korea have boosted their political and military alliance over the course of the Ukraine conflict. Both are under sanctions – Pyongyang for its nuclear weapons program, and Moscow for its war against Kyiv.

A photo circulated on Telegram which purports to show a North Korea flag flying alongside the Russian flag in Ukrainian territory. Picture: @milinfolive_man/TELEGRAM

Kim Jung Un with Russia's Vladimir Putin in Pyongyang. AFP

Russia’s ambassador to the UN denied reports that North Korean troops were present at its frontlines in the war against Ukraine.

“These statements about the North Korean soldiers in our front should not surprise no one, because they’re all barefaced lies,” Vassily Nebenzia told the Security Council, accusing Washington and London of “disinformation.”

North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui was in Moscow Wednesday to hold “strategic” talks with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, while Wang Yi – the top diplomat for China, Pyongyang’s chief diplomatic ally – discussed the Ukraine crisis with Russia’s deputy foreign minister in Beijing.

FINLAND SEIZES RUSSIAN PROPERTY

Moscow has reacted strongly to Helsinki’s seizing of Russian property last week by summoning Finland’s ambassador in Russia on Wednesday and sending diplomatic notes, Finland’s foreign affairs ministry told AFP.

The Finnish National Enforcement Authority – an agency under the justice ministry responsible for statutory enforcement duties – seized several Russian state-owned properties in Finland last week following a court decision issued by the District Court of Helsinki in August.

The order to seize Russian property in Finland came after a tribunal in The Hague in 2023 had ruled that Russia needs to pay a sum of more than five billion euros to the Ukrainian oil and gas company Naftogaz to compensate for the company’s financial losses during the Crimean annexation in 2014 – a sum Moscow has yet to pay.

Strongly protesting the seizures, Moscow summoned Finland’s ambassador in Russia on Wednesday.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin in Moscow this week. Picture: AFP

In a statement, Russia’s foreign ministry demanded Finland to reconsider the decision and said, “if necessary, the Russian side will take retaliatory measures”.

Finland’s foreign affairs ministry told AFP they had received two diplomatic notes as well as phone calls from the Russian embassy this week.

“They have asked for more information about the measures taken by the Enforcement Agency”, the ministry said.

Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat on Tuesday reported 44 Russian properties across the country with a total value of more than 35 million euros had been seized by the Finnish authorities on October 24.

Naftogaz said in a statement on Monday that “Russia has refused to pay Naftogaz the amount due” and that it had therefore “launched an international enforcement effort, seeking to enforce the award in countries where Russia holds assets”.

It was the first “publicly known successful asset freeze outside Ukraine” linked to lawsuits filed by Ukrainian companies against Russian expropriation of property in Crimea in 2014, Naftogaz said.