North Korea fires short-range missiles
North Korea launched three short-range guided missiles today, according to a report by the South Korean news agency Yonhap.
North Korea sometimes launches short-range missiles for tests or as part of military drills. Photo: EPA
By Tom Phillips, Shanghai 9:19AM BST 18 May 2013
Citing defense ministry sources in Seoul, Yonhap said the missiles had crashed into the Sea of Japan, off the eastern coast of the Korean peninsula. Two rockets were launched this morning while a third was launched in the afternoon, Yonhap said.
Early South Korean media reports suggested “shore-based anti-ship” missiles had been fired. Such tests are not unusual in North Korea. In March, a similar launch was carried out with two short-range missiles taking off from the country’s eastern coast.
The Tokyo-based news agency, Kyodo, reported the missiles had not fallen into Japanese waters. Yonhap said South Korea had “beefed up monitoring on North Korea and is maintaining a high-level of readiness to deal with any risky developments.”
Today’s launches follow months of escalating regional tensions, with a regular and colourful flow of threats and anti-US propaganda coming out of Pyongyang.
In one recent dispatch, the North Korean news agency, KCNA, attacked its enemy’s “corrupt ideology” claiming that, “US-style capitalism is bound to meet self-destruction”. The current crisis was sparked on February 12 when North Korea conducted an underground nuclear test.
Pyongyang’s third nuclear test triggered international condemnation, tightened sanctions and intensified US military exercises in the region.
A new United Nations report, parts of which were published on Friday by the Associated Press, claims that international sanctions have “considerably delayed” Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic weapons programs.
Earlier this month, North Korea accused the United States of being responsible for the crisis. “Unless the US stops its hostile acts against [North Korea]… and drops its hostility, the root cause of tension will not be removed and the tension and danger of conflicts are bound to repeat themselves,” a North Korean government spokesperson said, according to the Chinese news service, Xinhua.
