(Seoul) North Korea fired multiple “short-range ballistic missiles” toward the sea on Thursday, the South Korean military said, adding that it was analyzing the incident.
Pyongyang has launched multiple “short-range ballistic missiles” […] “towards the East Sea (Korean name for the Sea of Japan, editor’s note) at around 7:10 a.m. (6:10 p.m. (Eastern time) Wednesday),” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
The body said it was analyzing the incident and “sharing information” with American and Japanese authorities.
The Japanese Defense Ministry confirmed the launch of at least one North Korean ballistic missile.
Pyongyang has often carried out missile launches in the past around September 9, the anniversary of the founding of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in 1948.
It also carried out its fifth nuclear test on September 9, 2016.
In a speech this week, on the occasion of the 76the On the anniversary of the country’s founding, leader Kim Jong-un said North Korea intended to strengthen its nuclear arsenal to “counter any threatening act from its rival nuclear-armed states.”
North Korea regularly conducts weapons tests amid tensions with Seoul.
Pyongyang has also launched thousands of garbage balloons toward the South since May, saying they were acting in retaliation for propaganda balloons launched toward their country by South Korean activists.
Relations between the two Koreas are at their lowest in years. The North recently announced the deployment of 250 ballistic missile launchers on its southern border.
In response to these actions, South Korea has resumed spreading propaganda along the border, completely suspended a military agreement aimed at reducing tensions and resumed live-fire exercises on border islands and near the demilitarized zone that divides the Korean Peninsula.