North Korea Fires Ballistic Missile Towards Sea, South Korea and Japan Say

AP

A TV screen shows a file image of a North Korean missile launch during a news program at Seoul railway station in South Korea on Saturday.

North Korea fired a ballistic missile towards waters off its east coast on Saturday, South Korea and Japan said, marking Pyongyang’s latest missile launch this year. The launch came a day after North Korea rejected Seoul’s accusation that its landmines had wounded South Korean soldiers.

The missile was launched from the Wonsan area at around 6:30 a.m. on Saturday (21:30 GMT on Friday) and travelled more than 700 kilometres (434 miles), South Korea’s military said in a statement. South Korean and US authorities were analysing the launch to determine further details, it added.

Japan’s Coast Guard, citing the country’s Defence Ministry, said in an emailed statement that the object may have been a ballistic missile and appeared to have fallen into the sea. It warned vessels in the area to take precautions.

South Korea’s military said it had stepped up surveillance for any further missile launches and would share intelligence with the United States and Japan.

South Korea’s National Security Council held an emergency meeting on Saturday to assess the situation following the launch, the presidential office said in a statement.

North Korea has conducted missile tests on more than 10 occasions so far this year. Pyongyang has at times said it was testing new weapons systems, while several launches have followed North Korean protests against joint military exercises between Seoul and Washington.

The latest launch came after Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, issued a statement on Friday rejecting Seoul’s demand for an apology over what South Korea said were North Korean landmines that seriously wounded two South Korean soldiers in the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), the heavily fortified area separating the two Koreas.

South Korea said this week that North Korean landmines caused an explosion that seriously injured two soldiers during a reconnaissance mission inside the 4-kilometre-wide (2.5-mile) border zone stretching across the Korean Peninsula.

Cheong Seong-chang, vice president of the Sejong Institute in Seoul, a research centre specialising in North Korean affairs, said the missile launch may have been an attempt by Pyongyang to provoke a response from Seoul following Kim Yo Jong’s statement. He also said North Korea may have been testing a new type of missile.

North Korea has significantly increased its hostility towards South Korea in recent years, abandoning unification as a national objective and referring to South Korea as its “primary foe”.

Source: Reuters



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