North Korea conducted seven missile tests in January, a record for a single calendar month, raising questions about what motivated Pyongyang to launch at such a high frequency.

On the surface, the drive for much of the recent testing is embedded within the military goals outlined at the Eighth Party Congress of Jan. 2021, with most of the launches being developmental or quality control in nature.

Yet while state media has described the various military rationales for these tests, it has provided no explanation for the speed and urgency of the recent testing campaign, which comes