North Korea fires ballistic missiles, Seoul reports

Seoul, Sep 15 (EFE).- North Korea on Wednesday fired two unidentified ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan (East Sea), South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.

The missiles were fired from the central region of the country on Wednesday afternoon, the JCS said in a brief statement, adding that Seoul and Washington are analyzing details for more information.

The last time the regime fired a ballistic missile was at the end of March, when it tested what appeared to be a version of its KN-23 projectile, capable of tracing trajectories that were very difficult to intercept.

The launch was also detected by the Japanese Coast Guard at 1.38 pm local time (04:38 GMT), and it has indicated that the projectiles fell outside the Japanese exclusive economic zone, national broadcaster NHK reported.

United Nations Security Council sanctions forbid North Korea from testing ballistic missiles, but not cruise missiles.

The launch comes after the regime claimed to have tested a new type of long-range cruise missile over the weekend, and after it was reported in late August that Pyongyang has reactivated nuclear fuel reprocessing facilities.

Early this month, Seoul tested its first submarine-launched ballistic missile and said it plans to develop stronger, longer-range and more precise ones.

This arms escalation comes as denuclearization dialogue has remained stalled since the failed 2019 Hanoi summit, in which the United States deemed North Korea’s disarmament offer insufficient and refused to lift sanctions.

The US has insisted in recent months that it will meet with Pyongyang without preconditions anytime, anywhere to try to reignite the talks, but has so far has had no response from the regime. EFE

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