North Korea tests five short-range missiles

North Korea test-fired five short range missiles into the sea on Sunday, after it announced a day earlier to have tested an anti-ship missile, media reported.

The five missiles were fired between 4.20 p.m. and 5.10 p.m. from the port city of Wonsan in the eastern part of the country and were estimated to have flown about 200 km, Xinhua reported. The missiles were believed to belong to a new class of tactical missiles that North Korea was developing.

The testing of the missiles, significantly, came ahead of the joint annual war games between North Korea’s arch rival South Korea and the US, scheduled for early March to April. Pyongyang had proposed a suspension of nuclear tests in lieu of halting joint annual military drills between South Korea and the US this year, but the two countries flatly rejected North Korea’s proposal.

South Korea offered to hold high-level talks with their northern neighbours in January, but Pyongyang has called for halting the joint military drills between South Korea and the US, stopping anti-North Korea propaganda and lifting of sanctions on it as preconditions for the resumption of dialogue.