North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles, but one launch failed, South Korea’s military said yesterday, a day after Pyongyang warned of “fatal consequences” following major joint exercises in the South.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said the military had detected two launches, the first at 5:05am and the second one about 10 minutes later.
“The short-range ballistic missile launched at around 05:05 flew approximately 600k,” it said, adding that the second one traveled 120km.
Photo: EPA-EFE
JCS spokesperson Lee Sung-jun said the second missile appeared to fly abnormally in an early stage of flight, adding that if it had exploded in midair, its trajectory indicates debris could have landed over North Korea.
Seoul’s military has “strengthened surveillance and vigilance in preparation for further launches,” JCS said in a statement.
Lee declined to comment when asked whether the North’s latest launch could have been a test of missiles intended for delivery to Russia.
North Korea is accused of breaching arms control measures by supplying weapons to Russia to use in its war in Ukraine, and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a summit with leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang last month in a show of unity.
The launch also comes after Pyongyang on Sunday denounced joint military exercises by South Korea, Japan and the US, calling them an “Asian version of NATO” and warning of “fatal consequences.”
In related news, South Korea’s Ministry of Unification yesterday said that North Korea has switched the transmission of state TV broadcasts to a Russian satellite from a Chinese one, making the monitoring of such broadcasts a challenge for the South’s government agencies and media.
Signals from North Korea’s Korean Central Television were carried by a Russian satellite, Express 103, from Saturday instead of the ChinaSat 12 satellite, a South Korean satellite dish service provider told Reuters.
It declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.
While it remains possible to watch North Korean TV online, the quality might be delayed or of low quality.
South Korean government agencies and media monitor North Korean state media as a limited source of information from inside the reclusive state, despite its highly politicized and choreographed content.
“North Korea stopped using an existing Chinese satellite and began transmitting broadcasts through a Russian satellite, and reception of satellite broadcasts is being restricted in some areas on our side,” a unification ministry official said, adding that the ministry was looking to resolve the technical issue.
Authorized entities in the South need access to satellite service to watch North Korean broadcasts, and the general public is banned from accessing the North’s media.
Reuters has been unable to receive North Korean TV signals since yesterday morning.
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