North Korea again rattled the US and other nations in the Pacific, launching four ballistic missiles into waters off the shore of Japan on Monday. South Korean officials said the launches flew on average about 620 miles and reached an altitude of 160 miles, Reuters reported. Some landed about 190 miles off the Northwestern coast of Japan. Japan, in response, filed “strong protests” with the launches that were “an extremely dangerous action” in violation of UN Security Council resolutions, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in Parliament. North Korea has recently launched dozens of missiles and conducted other tests of its nuclear program, prompting the US and South Korea to speed up deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile system to the Korean peninsula. The launches also come as the US and South Korea are conducting their annual, large-scale Foal Eagle exercises.
The Air Force will finish restructuring the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile program by the end of this year, achieve its first test launch of the ICBM by 2027, and reach initial operational capability by the early 2030s.
