North Korea fires two ballistic missiles: PM Suga

Seoul, Mar 25 (efe-epa).- North Korea fired two ballistic missiles on Thursday morning, Japan’s prime minister announced, after the South Korean military detected two projectiles launched off its east coast into the sea.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga denounced the launches as a threat to the peace and security of Japan and the region, and a violation of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions, national broadcaster NHK reported.

The tests took place just after 7 am local time (22:00 GMT Wednesday) and the missiles fell into the Sea of Japan (East Sea) outside the country’s exclusive economic zone, the government said.

Suga has called an emergency meeting of Japan’s National Security Council.

Earlier, in a brief statement with few details, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) had said that “North Korea fired two unidentified projectiles from around South Hamgyong province this morning” and that Seoul and Washington they were analyzing additional information.

This is the regime’s second weapons test in a week after it launched two cruise missiles on Sunday.

Cruise missiles do not violate UNSC resolutions, however they do prohibit North Korea from firing ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons.

It comes at a time marked by North Korean pressure to resume the denuclearization dialog while Washington conducts a review of its strategy to deal with Pyongyang.

The last time North Korea tested projectiles with a ballistic trajectory was on March 29 last year, when it conducted tests with the so-called KN-25 system, described by the North Korean regime as a “super-large” multiple rocket launcher.

However, the size and range (more than 300 kilometers) of the projectiles that this system fires, which could have been tested again Wednesday, makes them classified as short-range ballistic missiles.

Based on a self-imposed moratorium to facilitate dialog with the US, North Korea has not tested intercontinental ballistic missiles since November 2017 and its last nuclear test dates from September of that year. EFE-EPA

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