New Delhi: The South’s military reported that North Korea launched two short-range ballistic missiles on Friday, the latest in a string of tests that Washington and Seoul have warned might lead to Kim Jong Un conducting another nuclear test.
The launch occurs just after 12 days of joint amphibious naval military exercises between South Korea and the US and before the commencement of significant combined air drills on Monday, which will involve more than 200 US and South Korean fighter jets.
Such exercises incense Pyongyang, which perceives them as invasion manoeuvres and has frequently defended its barrage of missile launches as essential “countermeasures” to what Korea perceives as US aggression.
South Korea’s military said it had “detected two ballistic missiles fired from the Tongchon area in Gangwon between 1159 (0259 GMT) and 1218,” it said, referring to a province on North Korea’s east coast.
“Our military has increased monitoring and surveillance and is maintaining a full readiness posture in close coordination with the US,” Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.
“North Korea fires unspecified ballistic missile towards the East Sea,” Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said, referring to the body of water also known as the Sea of Japan.
