English
Pyongyang: North Korea has fired an ‘unidentified ballistic missile’, the AFP News Agency said on Wednesday morning citing Seoul’s military.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff said the North launched “an unidentified ballistic missile toward the East Sea”. The test follows Pyongyang’s warnings over air drills conducted by South Korea and the US. Seoul also issued air raid warnings for Ulleungdo island after the launch.
Earlier, on October 9, North Korea had launched a suspected ballistic missile the launch of which was reported by the Japanese PMO. Before that, North Korea conducted its longest-ever weapons test, a nuclear-capable ballistic missile that flew over Japan and could reach the US Pacific territory of Guam and beyond, forcing the Japanese government to issue evacuation alerts and halt trains.
A day later, the North Korean media had said that the recent barrage of missile launches were tests of its tactical nuclear weapons to “hit and wipe out” potential South Korean and US targets as its leader Kim Jong Un signaled he would conduct more provocative tests.
“Through seven times of launching drills of the tactical nuclear operation units, the actual war capabilities … of the nuclear combat forces ready to hit and wipe out the set objects at any location and any time were displayed to the full,” the North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said adding the missile tests were in response to recent naval drills between US and South Korean forces, which involved the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan for the first time in five years.
Viewing the drills as a military threat, North Korea decided to stage “the simulation of an actual war” to check and improve its war deterrence and send a warning to its enemies, KCNA said.
