Renewed tension as North Korea fires ballistic missile after visit of US Vice President Harris to South Korea

South Korean military on Thursday expressed concerns that hours after the United States (US) Vice President Kamala Harris departed Osan Airbase, North Korea fired an “unidentified ballistic missile” in the Korean peninsula. It was gathered that the Thursday missile launch was the third missile display by North Korea in less than one week.

Harris had visited the nuclear armament zone of South Korea on the border with North Korea on Thursday, which perhaps, sparked up the provocation and violent reaction of the North.

Harris had at the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), assured that the US commitment to South Korea’s defence is “ironclad”, adding that the allies were “aligned” in their response to the growing threat of the North’s weapons programmes.

She declared that ‘Seoul and Washington want “a complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula”, adding, but in the interim, they are “ready to address any contingency”.

Harris condemned what she considered “brutal dictatorship, rampant human rights violations and an unlawful weapons program that threatens peace and stability” in North Korea.

Harris, at an observation post atop a steep hill overlooking North Korea, looked through bulky binoculars, guided by the US and South Korean soldiers, who were briefing her on the features, including defences, in the zone, declared, “It is so close.”