North Korea Launches Another Missile Over Japan; CCP Starts Cognitive Warfare Against Taiwan #news

With the massive joint military exercises by the US, Japan, and South Korea, the regional tensions have further escalated with North Korea's relaunch of missiles over Japan's airspace on October 4th. South Korea responded with two bombs that day. The US, Japan, and South Korea all condemned North Korea's provocative behavior. The CCP ignored the unspoken rules in the international intelligence community, launched a cognitive war against Taiwan, and exposed the whereabouts of Taiwan's senior national security officials, causing public outcry. North Korea launched another missile over Japan's airspace. In the early morning of October 4th, North Korea again fired an intermediate-range ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan. It's the fifth time in ten days. Moreover, it's the first time in five years since 2017 that the missile flew over Japanese territory. The North Korean tests launched a hypersonic missile with a maximum speed of Mach 17, meaning it's 17 times the speed of sound. A missile whose speed exceeds 5 times the speed of sound is called a hypersonic missile. This time, the highest point of the ballistic missile was 1,000 kilometers, and the flight distance was 4,600 kilometers, which can reach the US stronghold, Guam, in the Pacific Ocean. Reuters quoted South Korean military experts as saying that the ballistic missile launched was likely to belong to the Mars 12, announced in 2017, when North Korea claimed that the missile could threaten Guam. The ballistic missiles were launched while the US, Japan, and South Korea were conducting joint naval anti-submarine exercises in the nearby waters. All three countries spoke out in condemnation. According to the Voice of America, the US State Department condemned North Korea's actions as reckless and dangerous, and an unacceptable threat to the Japanese people. We condemn this dangerous and reckless launch of a long-range ballistic missile that flew over Japan, and it posed an unacceptable threat to the Japanese public. Together with the international community, we call on the DPRK to refrain from further provocations and to engage in sustained and substantive dialogue. South Korea's National Security Council issued a statement saying that North Korea will pay the price for its continued provocative behavior and that South Korea will strengthen its close cooperation with the US to further enhance its extended deterrence enforcement capabilities and work with the international community to seek to strengthen sanctions against Pyongyang. Such reckless nuclear provocation will face a resolute response from our military as well as our allies and the international community. The Japanese Prime Minister called North Korea's actions barbaric and a threat to the peace and security of Japan, the region, and the international community. North Korea has fired a ballistic missile. It flew over our country, and we believe it fell in the Pacific Ocean. It's another barbaric action again after the repeated ballistic missile launches, and we strongly condemn this. The Japanese government activated an immediate alert system and issued evacuation warnings to residents of two prefectures, and the East Japan Railway Company suspended its train operations in the northern region. North Korea launched the missile that has flown over our country, and the nationwide instant alert system, J-Alert, was activated. I live in an apartment, so I don't have a basement. So when they say to take cover underground, my honest reaction was, I really don't know what to do. There's a big impact on my life when a missile flies towards the ocean, so I think this is really concerning. In response to North Korea, South Korea fired two J-Dam bombs. According to South Korean media, ten hours after North Korea launched its ballistic missile, the U.S. and South Korean air forces dispatched four South Korean Air Force F-15K fighter jets and four American F-16 fighter jets stationed in South Korea. They conducted precision artillery training and launched two Joint Direct Attack Munitions J-Dam bombs. The J-Dam is a conventional bomb equipped with a guidance device and wings, which can use GPS and INS as inertial navigation system to conduct precision artillery fire during the day or night. Its margin of error is only 13 meters at a range of 24 kilometers, capable of accurately hitting the shooting base located under the ground or in a cave. It is clearly a warning to North Korea of its provocative behavior. The CCP's cognitive warfare against Taiwan has prompted a backlash. Media in mainland China recently revealed the whereabouts of Taiwan's Director General of the National Security Bureau's Cheng Ming-tong in Thailand. At the end of September 2022, it revealed yet another Taiwan intelligence official's trip to the U.S. By breaking the unspoken rules of the international intelligence community, the CCP intended to undermine Taiwan's intelligence and security system, but it's likely to have raised backlash from other countries. The Voice of America reported that the CCP's actions dragged the U.S. and Thailand into the case and they are likely to take offense and be more wary of the CCP, not allowing a similar situation to happen again. Taiwan officials have identified the incident as cognitive warfare conducted by the CCP against Taiwan. Taiwan media The Liberty Times quoted an expert as saying that usually the intelligence community the CCP uses the internet to publicize such information in order to make Taiwan look bad and make Taiwanese people lose confidence in national security, further achieving the effect of cognitive warfare. Another analysis suggests that the CCP is trying to weaken Taiwan's ability to protect secrets and to produce and disseminate false information for its political agendas. By taking this move, the CCP has escalated the tension from intelligence warfare to political cognitive warfare.