North Korea yesterday test-fired two medium-range ballistic missiles, just days after leader Kim Jong-un promised a series of nuclear warhead tests and missile launches amid surging military tensions.
Friction on the divided Korean Peninsula has deepened since the North carried out its fourth nuclear test on Jan. 6, followed a month later by a long-range rocket launch that was widely seen as a disguised ballistic missile test.
US defense officials said they had tracked two launches — both believed to be medium-range Rodong missiles fired from road-mobile launch vehicles.
Photo: EPA
The Rodong is a scaled-up Scud variant with a maximum range of about 1,300km.
South Korean military officials said the first missile was launched from Sukchon in the country’s southwest at 5:55am and flew 800km before splashing down in the East Sea (Sea of Japan).
The second, fired about 20 minutes later, disappeared off radar early into its flight.
Photo: Reuters
They came a day after US President Barack Obama signed an order implementing tough sanctions adopted earlier this month against North Korea by the UN Security Council, as well as fresh unilateral US measures.
For the past two weeks, Pyongyang has maintained a daily barrage of nuclear strike threats against both Seoul and Washington, ostensibly over ongoing, large-scale South Korea-US military drills that the North sees as provocative rehearsals for invasion.
To register its anger at the joint exercises, the North fired two short-range missiles into the East Sea on Thursday last week.
A few days later, Kim announced that a nuclear warhead explosion test and firings of “several kinds” of ballistic missiles would be carried out “in a short time.”
South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense said yesterday’s launches were clearly the result of Kim’s order.
“North Korea appears to be speeding up test launches to advance its nuclear capabilities,” ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun said.
Calling the move a direct challenge to the UN Security Council and the international community, Moon said the South’s military stood ready to respond immediately to any North Korean threat to national security.
Existing UN sanctions ban North Korea from the use of any ballistic missile test, although short-range launches tend to go unpunished.
A Rodong test is more provocative, given its greater range, which makes it capable of hitting most of Japan.
The last Rodong test was in March 2014, when two of the missiles were fired into the East Sea.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe condemned the launch and said his government would coordinate its response with the US, South Korea and other nations concerned.
“We strongly demand North Korea exercise restraint,” Abe told a parliamentary committee.
The US Department of State urged Pyongyang to refrain from any actions that could “further raise tensions.”
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