South Korea’s military says North Korea has fired a short-range ballistic missile into the sea in a possible display of defiance against the steps by Washington and Seoul to tighten nuclear deterrence against North Korean threats.
North Korea on Sunday fired a short-range ballistic missile into the sea, South Korea said, in a possible display of defiance against the latest steps by Washington and Seoul to tighten their nuclear deterrence plans against North Korean threats.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile was fired from an area near the North Korean capital of Pyongyang at around 10:38 p.m. and flew 570 kilometers (354 miles) before landing in the sea.
The South Korean military said it was sharing the launch information with the United States and Japan to further analyze the details while maintaining readiness against the possibility of additional North Korean military activities. It criticized the launch as a «clear violation» of U.N. Security Council resolutions that ban North Korea from using ballistic technologies.
Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest in years, with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un accelerating the expansion of his nuclear and missile program, and flaunting an escalatory nuclear doctrine that authorizes the preemptive use of nuclear weapons.
