Kim Jong Un Keeps Aiming His Missiles at This 'Most Hated Rock'

  • North Korea has fired at Alsom Island some 25 times since 2019
  • ‘Most hated rock’ has proved accuracy of new class of rockets
A television screen showing a news broadcast at a railway station in Seoul on Jan. 30, with file footage of a North Korean missile test. Photographer: Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Images
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As Kim Jong Un unleashed his biggest-ever barrage of missile tests last month, one place suffered the most: a barren piles of rocks whose name means “No Man’s Land.”

Alsom Island, located 18 kilometers (11 miles) off North Korea’s northeastern coast, has been targeted in more than 25 missile strikes since 2019. It was the destination of eight rockets in January alone, as Kim carried out the most launches since he took power in a signal of defiance against a U.S.-led sanctions regime intended to punish Pyongyang for developing such weapons.