北 미상 발사체 동해상으로 2발 발사
A few weeks after it was all handshakes, hugs and smiles at the DMZ between the leaders of North Korea and the U.S.,… the North has shakened things up a touch... by shooting some missiles into the East Sea.
Let's get straight to our defense ministry correspondent Kim Ji-yeon, who's on the line.
Ji-yeon, tell us more.
Sure.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff confirmed earlier this morning that North Korea had fired two short-range missiles from North Korea's eastern city of Wonsan at 5:34 and 5:57AM, Korea time, this Thursday.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff say the first short-range missile flew 430 kilometers towards the East Sea... after being launched from a transporter erector launcher.
Both of the missiles flew at an altitude of some 50 kilometers... and both of them flew in an easterly direction... from the Hodo Peninsula.
It says it's currently working with the U.S. to verify the second missile ... including its flight distance.
"Regarding North Korea's firing of projectiles presumed to be short-range missiles this morning after the last one fired in May, South Korea and U.S. military are currently sharing information and are analyzing data in detail. The South Korean government has been monitoring the situation and urges North Korea to halt such actions, which are not helpful in lowering military tensions on the Korean peninsula."
The military says it's been closely watching the Wonsan area, where North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has recently made public appearances.... and it's speculated Kim could have been at the site when the missiles were launched this morning.
Wonsan is also where North Korea had launched an intermediate-range Musudan missile in June 2016... in an apparent show of force that the regime has made significant progress in its missile development.
There's a lot of questions that aren't being answered at this hour by Seoul's defense ministry... including the big question of why North Korea has launched missiles again, what it's trying to achieve and the timing... why now.
A lot of questions at this hour. How do you expect the next few days to unfold after this?
Well, another big question is North Korea's motives,... whether it wants to send the U.S. and South Korea a message, or if it's a show of frustration over what it sees as slow progress in the denuclearization talks.
The last time North Korea fired missiles was in early May... when a lot of experts believed it was North's apparent show of frustration over stalled talks with the U.S.
Despite repeated questions from the media on whether they could be officially verified as "ballistic", this was not confirmed... and it's highly unlikely that the South Korean military will announce this time that launches this morning were ballistic.
Another question that's likely to be raised is whether they likely to be Russian Iskander-class missile, which can carry nuclear warheads and can evade existing anti-missile systems like Patriot or THAAD... we'll need more expert analysis on this.
But the big question is... why now.... since U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un seemed to patch up their differences... at their impromptu meeting at the inter-Korean border on June 30... and as working-level talks were to be planned between Pyeongyang and Washington.
The North had warned that the resumption of talks would be affected by whether Seoul and Washington would go ahead with joint military exercises planned for next month.
This also comes after U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton visited Seoul earlier this week... to discuss with his South Korean counterpart and foreign affairs and defense ministers... a range of issues centered on diplomatic efforts to achieve the denuclearization of North Korea... and military measures to support those efforts.
So it may be unlikely but we'll have to see if the latest launch is be a game-changer in the denuclearization talks.
That's all I have for now. Back to you.
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#Wonsan
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