North Korea yesterday fired three ballistic missiles that flew at least 500km into the sea off its east coast, South Korea’s military said, the latest in a series of provocative moves by the nation.
The US military said it detected launches of what it believed were two Scud missiles and one Rodong, a home-grown missile based on Soviet-era Scud technology.
North Korea has fired both types numerous times in recent years, an indication that unlike recent launches that were seen as efforts by the North to improve its missile capability, yesterday’s were meant as a show of force.
Photo: AFP
“This smells political rather than technical to me,” said Melissa Hanham, a senior research associate at the US-based Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, California.
“I think the number and distance of the missiles lets them remind the ROK [Republic of Korea] of what they are up against,” she said, referring to the South by its official name.
The launches came nearly a week after South Korea and the US chose a site in the South to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system to counter threats from the North, which had prompted Pyongyang to threaten a “physical response.”
“Our assessment is that it was done as a show of force,” a South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff official said at a briefing.
The missiles were launched from an area in the North’s western region called Hwangju between 5:45am and 6:40am, the South’s military said, an indication that the North was confident they would not crash on its own territory.
Two of them flew about 500km to 600km, displaying a sufficient range to reach entire nation, South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesman Jeon Ha-gyu said.
He said the military was analyzing how far the third missile flew.
An earlier Joint Chiefs of Staff statement said all three flew about 500km to 600km.
North Korea has test-fired a series of ballistic missiles in recent months, in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions, including intermediate-range missiles last month and a submarine-launched missile this month.
“In addition to the basic goal of enhancing missile units’ readiness to fight, it might be a way of reminding their southern neighbors that the site chosen for a THAAD battery in South Korea is within reach,” Joshua Pollack, editor of the US-based Nonproliferation Review, said of yesterday’s launches.
South Korea announced last week the THAAD system would be deployed in the southeastern county of Seongju.
“The threat to our national security is growing very quickly in a short period of time,” South Korean Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn told parliament yesterday.
Japan denounced the launches, saying: “The latest launch is a breach of the UN Security Council resolution and is extremely hazardous to shipping and aircraft and we have strongly protested.”
Additional reporting by AP
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number