SEOUL: North Korea fired several missiles off its east coast on Wednesday (Nov 4), Seoul’s military said, extending a burst of weapons testing as Pyongyang hardens its stance toward South Korea and the United States.
The nuclear-equipped North has carried out a flurry of weapons tests in recent days, which come during heightened tensions between Pyongyang and Seoul over a landmine explosion along their heavily fortified border.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said its military “detected several missiles launched from the Sondok area of North Korea towards the East Sea on the morning of Nov 4”, referring to the body of water also known as the Sea of Japan.
“South Korea and the United States are conducting a detailed analysis of the exact specifications of the detected North Korean missiles,” it said.
The allies “closely monitored the missile launches from the preparation stage and detected and tracked the missiles immediately after launch”.
Wednesday’s launch also comes a day after North Korea said it test-fired strategic cruise missiles, following a separate test of cluster bomb warheads over the weekend.
The North recently trialled other weapons including including attack drones, a new precision-guided torpedo system and an intermediate-range hypersonic missile.
A joint Seoul-UN investigation concluded that the North had planted the mines more than a year earlier, which wounded three South Korean soldiers.