North Korea has launched several unidentified ground-based projectiles, assumed to be surface-to-ship missiles, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff announced.
“North Korea fired multiple unidentified projectiles, assumed to be surface-to-ship missiles, this morning from the vicinity of Wonsan, Gangwon Province,” the JCS statement said, according to the Yonhap news agency.
South Korea’s military added that the missiles flew about 200 kilometers (124 miles).
The JCS is “maintaining full preparedness” and has “beefed up surveillance and vigilance against the possibility of additional provocations.” President Moon Jae-in was immediately notified of the launch, the statement added.
The last time North Korea conducted a missile launch was on May 29, when it fired at least one short-range ballistic missile. The projectile, believed to be a Scud-class missile, flew around 450 kilometers before landing in the Sea of Japan, some 300 km off the Japanese islands.
Shortly afterwards, on May 30, the US conducted its first ever test of a Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) interceptor with a capacity to shoot down intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), that Washington said was planned “years in advance.”
On Wednesday, the head of the US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) told Congress that Pyongyang’s ballistic missile tests in the last six months have become cause for concern to the US and its allies in the region.
