Why North Korea launches a series of unusual missile tests?

But Pyongyang regularly defies the ban, and leader Kim Jong Un has vowed to bolster his country’s defenses.

The East Asian country said it had fired short-range ballistic missiles from train cars, while a few days ago it conducted two tests of what it said were hypersonic missiles that are difficult to detect.

Why is North Korea firing missiles now?

The frequency and timing of the tests in January was unusual. North Korea tends to launch missile launches to celebrate politically significant events in the country, or to signify its displeasure over military exercises between the United States and South Korea.

Ankit Panda, an expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said North Korea typically fires weapons to develop its missile capabilities and maintain operational readiness, and recent tests seem to confirm this.

“Kim Jong Un also has internal considerations: these launches allow him in a time of economic hardship to express that national defense priorities will not recede,” Banda told the BBC.

North Korea suffers from food shortages and a faltering economy. This is due to the external and self-imposed blockade to prevent Covid, which has resulted in the cutting off of trade with China, its main economic and political ally, although there are reports that this may resume soon.

Kim recently admitted that the country was facing a “big life and death struggle”. He pledged to increase its military power, including the development of hypersonic missiles.

North Koreas talks with the United States, which wants it to give up its nuclear weapons, have faltered since US President Joe Biden took office. The Biden administration imposed its first sanctions on North Korea last week, in response to some previous tests this month.

Park Won-joon, a professor of North Korean studies at Iowa Women’s University, said Monday’s release could be a “stronger reaction” to the sanctions, as it shows “the North has no intention of overcoming the power of the United States.”

The launches are taking place just weeks before the Winter Olympics, a prestigious and highly politically sensitive event for China, which is set to begin in Beijing on February 4.

“I imagine China will not welcome the North Korean experiment on its doorstep on the eve of the Beijing Olympics,” British North Korea analyst Chad O’Carroll said on Twitter.

He added, “If this continues, we should not rule out the possibility that it will be [كوريا الشمالية] China is upset about something.”

But Banda said that although “Beijing may not be satisfied with these tests, it would probably allow them” since they do not involve testing nuclear weapons or long-range missiles, which he described as “Chinas red lines”.

North Korea expert Leif Eric Easley told the BBC that with reports that North Korea may resume trade with China soon, “this timing suggests that Beijing is more than complicit in Pyongyang’s provocations, as China supports North Korea.” economically and militarily coordinating with it.

“Given its strategic relationship with China, the North Korean leadership is likely to finish the 2022 early military exercises and missile tests before the Beijing Olympics,” he added.

“The timing also indicates that North Korea does not want to remain silent before the presidential elections in South Korea, or appear weak in need of revival in the form of Chinese assistance across the border.”

Covering by Tessa Wong and BBC Korea