NKorea fires 2 nuke missiles
Credit to Author: ASSOCIATED PRESS| Date: Wed, 31 Jul 2019 16:17:45 +0000
SEOUL, South Korea: South Korea’s military said North Korea conducted its second weapons test in less than a week Wednesday, firing two short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast in a move observers say could be aimed at boosting pressure on the United States as the rivals struggle to set up fresh nuclear talks.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that the missiles were launched from Wonsan, a city the North pushes as a vacation destination but that it also uses as a regular launch site.
It said both missiles were believed to have flown about 250 kilometers at a maximum altitude of 30 km and that the South Korean and US militaries were trying to gather more details.
The test would be yet another North Korean violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions and comes as the country’s negotiations with the US over its nuclear weapons program are at a stalemate and as Pyongyang has expressed anger over planned US-South Korean military drills.
“The North’s repeated missile launches are not helpful to efforts to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula, and we urge [North Korea] to stop this kind of behavior,” the South Korean statement said.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe briefly told reporters the launches were “no threat to Japanese national security.”
Last Thursday, North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles that Seoul officials said flew 600 km and as high as 50 km before landing in the sea.
North Korea’s state media said those tests were supervised by leader Kim Jong Un and were designed to deliver a “solemn warning” to South Korea over its purchase of high tech US-made fighter jets and the planned military drills, which Pyongyang calls an invasion rehearsal.
Even though North Korea is banned by the UN from using ballistic technology in any weapons launches, it’s unlikely that the nation, already under 11 rounds of UN sanctions, will be hit with fresh punitive measures.
Past sanctions were imposed only when the North conducted long-range ballistic launches.
Japan’s Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya told reporters Wednesday that the most recently launched weapons did not reach Japan’s exclusive economic zone and that officials were still analyzing details, including the flight distance and trajectory.
AP