Opinion: Opinion: India's Balancing Act On Russia Is Getting Trickier

India's official position on the Russian invasion of Ukraine is notoriously hard to pin down.

Seoul's military said North Korea fired two ballistic missiles into the sea early Sunday morning, the seventh such launch in two weeks, just hours after a US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier concluded joint exercises off the Korean peninsula.

Seoul, Tokyo and Washington have intensified joint naval exercises in recent weeks, infuriating Pyongyang,

which it regards as rehearsals for invasion and justifies its missile launches as necessary "countermeasures".

With talks stalled for a long time, Pyongyang has doubled down on its banned weapons programs, and launched a medium-range ballistic missile over Japan last week.

Officials and analysts have warned that it has completed preparations for another nuclear test.

South Korea's military said on Sunday that it "discovered two short-range ballistic missiles between 0148 and 0158 (1648-1658 GMT) that were launched from Munchon District in Kangwon Province towards the East Sea."

In reference to the body of water also known as the Sea of ​​Japan.

Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that the missiles "flyed 350 kilometers (217 miles) at an altitude of 90 kilometers," describing the launch as a "serious provocation."

Tokyo also confirmed the launches,

The coast guard said the missiles landed outside Japan's exclusive economic zone.

Japan's First Deputy Defense Minister Toshiro Ino said Tokyo is analyzing the missiles, adding that "one of them has the potential to be a submarine-launched ballistic missile."

Seoul said last month that it had detected indications that North Korea was preparing to launch a short-range ballistic missile, a weapon that Pyongyang last tested in May.

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The US military's Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement that it was "closely consulting with our allies and partners," adding that the launch highlighted the "destabilizing" nature of North Korea's missile programs.

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Drills, drills, drills

Leif Eric Easley, a professor at Eha University in Seoul, said North Korea's missile tests are usually aimed at developing new capabilities, but recent launches, "from different locations at different times of the day, may be aimed at demonstrating military readiness."

"The Kim regime is trying to force Seol,

Tokyo and Washington are abandoning their trilateral security cooperation."

But at an emergency meeting of the National Security Council in Seoul following the missile test, South Korean officials pledged to enhance such cooperation, according to a statement.

The latest wave of launches is part of a record year of weapons tests by isolated North Korea, which leader Kim Jong Un declared last month an "irreversible" nuclear power, effectively ending the possibility of talks on denuclearization.

Seoul, Tokyo and Washington ramped up joint military exercises in response,

With the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and its strike group redeployed to the region last week.

On Thursday, Seoul's military said it swarmed 30 fighter jets after 12 North Korean warplanes conducted a rare formation flight and apparently practiced air-to-ground firing.

Goo Myung-hyun, a researcher at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies,

He said North Korea was trying to claim that the nature of the sanctions-busting weapons tests were similar to joint defense exercises between allies.

"North Korea is trying to parity by continuing to launch missiles," he told AFP.

No new penalties

Analysts say Pyongyang has been encouraged to continue testing its weapons.

Confident that the stalemate at the United Nations will protect it from further sanctions.

Last week, the United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting to discuss Pyongyang's launch over Japan, which officials and analysts said was the Hwasong-12 that likely traveled the longest horizontal distance of any North Korean test.

But at the meeting,

North Korea's longtime ally and economic backer China has blamed Washington for triggering the wave of missile launches, with China's deputy ambassador to the United Nations Geng Shuang accusing the United States of "poisoning the regional security environment".

US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-

Greenfield called for "strengthening" existing sanctions on North Korea, something that China and Russia vetoed in May.

The council has been divided over the response to Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions for months, with Russia and China on the sympathetic side and the rest of the council pressing for punishment.

For Kim's sake,

"There are other emergencies high on the list of US policymakers, which includes two of its main backers, Russia and China," Su Kim, an analyst at the RAND Corporation, told AFP.

"It is therefore unlikely that we will see Moscow or Beijing support the United States on the North Korea issue any time soon," she said.

Officials in Seoul and Washington have warned for months that Pyongyang will also conduct another nuclear test, likely after the Chinese Communist Party congress later this month.

BY
ProBuzzFeed