North Korea launched more projectiles believed to be ballistic missiles in the early hours of Monday, which reportedly landed off Japan’s coast.
Seoul’s military said that North Korea fired “two short-range ballistic missiles from the Sukchon area,” in a statement carried by the South Korean state news agency.
North Korea later announced it fired “two shots from [a] multiple rocket launch system Monday,” South Korea’s leading Yonhap news agency reported.
Three projectiles which could be ballistic missiles landed outside Japan’s economic zone within minutes after being fired after 2200 GMT, Japan’s public broadcaster NHK reported.
Yonhap News agency quoted North Korean politician Kim Yo-Jong, the sister of North Korea’s leader, as saying in the early hours of Monday: “It’s up to the US how often North Korea will use [the] Pacific as its ‘shooting range.'”
What prompted the latest missile launch?
Monday’s missile launch came only two days after North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile that landed off Japan’s west coast. It described the strike as a “sudden launching drill.”
The test came after Pyongyang warned of an “unprecedentedly persistent, strong” response to planned joint military drills by the United States and South Korea.
On Sunday, the US and South Korea held a joint air exercise in response to the intercontinental ballistic missile launch.
The latest missile launch is North Korea’s third major weapons test this year.
Pyongyang’s ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs are banned under United Nations Security Council resolutions.
But the North’s leaders say the weapons development is necessary to counter “hostile policies” by Washington and its allies.
rmt/ar (AFP, Reuters)
Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/north-korea-fires-ballistic-missiles-off-east-coast/a-64758745?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf