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North Korea has launched at least 84 missiles in 2022 — including 25 in a single day — an unprecedented number of tests that has escalated tension with the U.S. and across Asia and raised fears that leader Kim Jong-Un is planning another nuclear test, its seventh since 2017.
North Korea began testing missiles in 1984 but has accelerated its development of short- and long-range weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles potentially capable of reaching the U.S.
Kim announced a law in September declaring North Korea a nuclear weapons state with the right to protect itself with pre-emptive nuclear strikes. Despite U.S. and U.N. sanctions over the years, the missile tests have continued.
President Joe Biden told Chinese President Xi Jinping Nov. 14 that the U.S. would take unspecified defensive action against North Korea if it continues provocative nuclear missile launches. Biden urged Xi to discourage further tests.
Biden, South Korean and Japanese leaders pledged Nov. 13 that the three nations would work together against North Korea's missile program.
It's not only the number of missiles that concerns the U.S. and its allies. Rocket trajectories have become more threatening, with one passing over Japan and one crashing into the ocean south of the Northern Limit Line, a maritime boundary that separates the Koreas.
Except for one, the missiles have crashed in international waters, and some have caused alerts in South Korea and Japan. One rocket launched Oct. 4 flew over the Aomori prefecture in northern Japan, triggering alarms that warned residents to take shelter.
The missile launches have continued despite U.N. Security Council sanctions starting in 2006.
North Korea said the rocket launches were in response to Vigilant Storm, a large military exercise conducted by U.S. and South Korean forces starting Oct. 31.
The drills involved thousands of U.S. and South Korean troops and 100 U.S. and 140 South Korean aircraft, including F-35 fighters and two U.S. B-1B stealth bombers. About 1,600 sorties, or deployments, were conducted over six days.
North Korean state media said the exercise was practice for a potential invasion. The U.S. and South Korea have held military training events of different sizes in South Korean territory since the end of the Korean War.
Vigilant Storm, the largest such exercise since 2017, was scheduled to end Nov. 4. It was extended a day after U.S. said the North Korean launches could be a prelude to a nuclear test.
North Korea is taking advantage of global conflict, including Russia's war on Ukraine and the uneasy relationship between the U.S. and China, some analysts say. It's putting pressure on the U.S. and hoping to strengthen ties to China and Russia.
Oct. 18
South Korean military announces joint operation Vigilant Storm in South Korea.
Oct 28 | 4 days before Vigilant Storm
North Korea launches two short-range ballistic missiles over the Sea of Japan.
Oct. 31 | 1st day
Vigilant Storm begins
Nov. 2 | 3rd day
North Korea launches a record 25 short-range ballistic missiles at four different times from a number of launch sites.
No damages are reported, but at least one rocket lands an estimated 16 miles south of the Northern Limit Line, the sea buffer zone separating North and South Korea, NBC News said. That's the first time the zone has been crossed since the Korean Peninsula was divided in 1948.
In retaliation, South Korean jet fighters fire three rockets into the sea north of the North Limit Line.
Nov. 3 | 4th day
North Korea launches at least three more rockets, one of them believed to be a Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile. Civilians in areas of South Korea and residents of Miyagi, Niigata and Yamagata prefectures in Japan are told to shelter.
North Korea also fires 80-100 artillery rounds into an eastern maritime buffer zone that was created in 2018 to ease tension on the Korean peninsula.
The U.S. and South Korea announce they will extend Vigilant Storm by a day.
Nov. 4 | 5th day
South Korea scrambles about 80 jets after detecting an estimated 180 North Korean planes inside North Korean airspace. The planes were discovered inland and along North Korean coasts, but they did not approach the South Korean border, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
Nov. 5 | 6th day
North Korea launches four short-range ballistic missiles into the Yellow Sea.
Vigilant Storm ends.
As of Nov. 14; SOURCE Center for Strategic & International Studies; Associated Press
The Korean War ended in 1953, but without a peace treaty. Instead, an armistice, which ended hostilities, was signed. Officially, North and South Korea are still technically at war.
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CONTRIBUTING Janet Loehrke, USA TODAY
SOURCE USA TODAY Network reporting and research; Center for Strategic and International Studies; Associated Press; Nuclear Threat Initiative; U.S. Indo-Pacific Command; Wilson Center; Council on Foreign Relations; RAND Corp.