North Korea fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles in two rounds on Wednesday, South Korea’s military said, after reporting an “unidentified projectile” was launched from the Pyongyang area the previous day.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has sought to repair ties with the North since taking office last year.
On Monday, Seoul expressed regret over civilian drone incursions into the North in January, with Lee calling it “irresponsible” and noting that government officials had been involved in the operation.
But analysts said the launches, North Korea’s fourth and fifth known ballistic missile tests this year, signaled its latest rebuff of Seoul’s peace overtures.
The South Korean military said early Wednesday it had detected “an unidentified projectile” launched from the area of the North’s capital a day earlier.
About an hour later, the military said it had also detected “multiple unidentified ballistic missiles” fired on Wednesday morning from North Korea’s Wonsan area toward the East Sea, the body of water also known as the Sea of Japan.
In separate statements, the military said they were short-range ballistic missiles that were fired at around 8:50 am (23:50 GMT Tuesday) and flew around 240 kilometers (149 miles).
Another – also short-range and ballistic – was launched at around 2:20 pm, flying over 700 kilometers (1126 miles), it said.
The Japan Coast Guard also said an “object suspected to be a ballistic missile has been launched from North Korea,” urging ships to “remain vigilant.”
Seoul’s Office of National Security at the presidential Blue House held an emergency meeting, calling on Pyongyang to immediately halt provocations.
‘World-Startling Fools’
After Lee’s expression of regret over the drones on Monday, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called it “wise behavior.”
“Our government appreciated it as very fortunate and wise behaviour for its own sake,” Kim Yo Jong said.
But on Tuesday, a senior North Korean official described the South as “the enemy state most hostile” to Pyongyang, reviving a label previously used by Kim Jong Un.
Jang Kum Chol, first vice-minister of Pyongyang’s foreign ministry, said South Korean media reports that described Kim Yo Jong’s comments as an “exceptional friendly response” were “nonsense.”
Such an interpretation was nothing more than “hope-filled dream reading” by “world-startling fools,” he said in a statement carried by Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency.
The launches were Pyongyang’s message to Seoul that its anti-South stance remains firm despite Seoul’s repeated overtures, said Lim Eul-chul, an expert on North Korea at Kyungnam University.
China’s Top Diplomat to Visit North
Later Wednesday, Pyongyang’s state media said China’s top diplomat Wang Yi would visit the North on a two-day trip starting Thursday.
His visit comes ahead of an expected summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping next month.
Speculation is mounting over a potential meeting between Trump and North Korea’s leader, Kim, at around the same time.
Trump, who has repeatedly criticized Seoul’s level of support for his war in Iran, has recently boasted of his ties with Kim.
“South Korea didn’t help us” during the Middle East war, Trump said earlier this week.
“We’ve got 45,000 soldiers in South Korea to protect (them) from Kim Jong Un, who I get along with very well. He said very nice things about me.”
The US actually has around 28,500 troops in South Korea.
Trump met Kim three times during his first term, but his October comment that he was “100 percent” open to meeting Kim again has gone unanswered.
