North Korea fires an unidentified projectile

The South Korean military announced Sunday that North Korea fired an “unidentified projectile”, after a month of calm, without firing it, during the Beijing Olympics.

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“North Korea fired an unidentified projectile towards the east,” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement, without elaborating.

Pyongyang conducted an unprecedented series of seven missile launches in January, including the most powerful one since 2017.

The regime also warned that it might waive its voluntary ban on ICBMs and nuclear tests.

But North Korea appears to have stopped testing during the 2022 Winter Olympics, perhaps out of respect for its ally China, experts say.

Pyongyang’s demonstrations of power come at a sensitive time in the region, as South Korea prepares to elect its next president on March 9.

Analysts say Pyongyang may use the upcoming anniversary – the 110th anniversary of Kim Il Sung’s birth on April 15 – to conduct a major weapons test.