DPRK resumes military provocations, firing missiles after Kim Yo Jong's statement

[Financial News] Expectations that military tensions between the two Koreas would ease after a statement on inter-Korean relations by Kim Yo Jong, deputy director of the Workers' Party of Korea, have been completely dashed by a series of missile launches by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). Through these shows of force, the DPRK has demonstrated that its hostile policy toward South Korea remains unchanged.
The Republic of Korea Joint Chiefs of Staff (ROK JCS) announced on the 8th that the DPRK had fired an unidentified projectile into the East Sea. The South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities are said to be conducting a joint analysis of the projectile launched by the DPRK.
Around the time of this missile launch, Jang Kum Chol, head of Bureau 10, a body under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea that deals with South Korea, declared in an interview that South Korea is the DPRK's "primary enemy."
He also openly mocked reactions in South Korea to Kim Yo Jong's statement the previous day, sneering that various circles in the country, including Cheong Wa Dae, were spouting "nonsense like a pipe dream."
On the 6th, Kim Yo Jong had referred to President Lee Jae-myung's expression of regret over the incident involving a South Korean unmanned aerial vehicle entering the DPRK. She said, "Our head of state, Kim Jong Un, assessed this as showing the attitude of a frank and magnanimous person."
Since the 9th Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea, the DPRK has resumed various missile launches. It has also continued provocations by advancing solid-fuel propulsion technology for intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of striking the mainland United States of America (US). In addition, it has kept firing missiles that provoke the US amid the war in the Middle East, drawing close attention.
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rainman@fnnews.com Reporter Kim Kyung-soo Reporter