North Korea fires multiple short-range ballistic missiles toward East Sea: JCS
Seoul, Sep 12 (IANS) North Korea fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles toward the East Sea on Saturday, South Korea’s military said, just a day after South Korea, the United States and Japan wrapped up their trilateral military exercise.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected multiple ballistic missiles launched from the Wonsan area at around 5:20 a.m., adding that it is analysing the exact specifications with the US side, Yonhap News Agency reported.
The missiles flew about 250 kilometres before coming down in the sea, the JCS said.
South Korean and US intelligence authorities have monitored and shared the North’s movements from the early stages, and shared relevant information with Japan, the JCS said.
“Our military is closely monitoring North Korea’s various movements under a firm South Korea-US defence posture, and maintains the capabilities and readiness to overwhelmingly respond to any provocations,” it added.
The North appears to have fired its Hwasong-11 series of ballistic missiles and rounds from 600-millimetre multiple rocket launchers in successive order on several occasions, sources said.
The latest launch came after Seoul, Washington and Tokyo concluded their five-day Freedom Edge exercise Friday in international waters east and south of South Korea’s southern island of Jeju.
The drills proceeded as planned despite Seoul and Washington having scaled back their annual combined Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) exercise last month following an order from US President Donald Trump.
In an apparent conciliatory gesture toward Pyongyang, Trump ordered the reduction of joint military drills between South Korea and the US, saying that the drills are not only “costly” but also send a “totally inappropriate and hostile” signal to the North.
The South Korean military has stepped up surveillance to detect possible additional launches and maintains readiness on “full alert” while sharing relevant information with the US and Japan, the JCS said.
The missile launch came after North Korean Defence Minister Kim Song-gi denounced the trilateral exercise Monday, vowing to take “reflective countermeasures.”
In a statement, Kim warned, “If the US and its allies attempt to provoke a new military confrontation with the DPRK, the latter will take strong and reflective countermeasures from the standpoint of power,” using the acronym of the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
The North last fired a barrage of short-range ballistic missiles toward the East Sea on August 20, as the allies staged their annual UFS drills.
The North has long denounced joint military drills between Seoul and Washington as a rehearsal for invasion and responded with its own weapons tests in a show of protest.
Saturday’s launch came ahead of a high-stakes summit between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, expected to take place in Washington, DC, later this month. North Korea-related issues are expected to be part of the agenda for the upcoming Trump-Xi meeting.
–IANS
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