North Korea yesterday fired four short-range missile off its east coast, South Korean military officials said.
The first three were launched between 5:20pm and 7:50pm, with the first two fired from a base near the eastern port of Wonsan and the third from Sinsang-ri, the defense ministry said. The fourth was fired at 9:20pm.
The hardline communist state has responded defiantly to UN condemnation of its long-range rocket launch on April 5 and its May 25 nuclear test, vowing to bolster its defenses.
“They appear to be ground-to-ship missiles, which were launched into the East Sea [Sea of Japan],” a ministry spokesman said speaking of the first two launches. “We have no detailed information now, but there have been preparations for missile launches in the region.”
Yonhap news agency said the third one was also a ground-to-ship missile.
The North issued a fresh warning to Japan on Wednesday to stay clear of some coastal areas during military exercises until July 11.
According to Japan’s Coast Guard, Pyongyang issued navigation bans for 10 areas in the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea, citing “military gunfire and bombardment training.”
South Korea’s JoongAng Ilbo newspaper, quoting an intelligence source, said the North in the coming days was likely to fire a series of short-range missiles.
Apart from ground-to-ship weapons with a range of 140km, it said these would likely include Scud-B missiles with a range of 340km.
TYPHOON: The storm’s path indicates a high possibility of Krathon making landfall in Pingtung County, depending on when the storm turns north, the CWA said Typhoon Krathon is strengthening and is more likely to make landfall in Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said in a forecast released yesterday afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the CWA’s updated sea warning for Krathon showed that the storm was about 430km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point. It was moving in west-northwest at 9kph, with maximum sustained winds of 119kph and gusts of up to 155kph, CWA data showed. Krathon is expected to move further west before turning north tomorrow, CWA forecaster Wu Wan-hua (伍婉華) said. The CWA’s latest forecast and other countries’ projections of the storm’s path indicate a higher
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