Seoul: North Korea fired another short-range missile off its east coast on Friday, South Korean officials said, as regional leaders met in Washington to discuss the threat of Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme.
It was the latest in a series of North Korean missile launches during what has been an extended period of elevated military tension on the Korean peninsula, triggered by Pyongyang’s fourth nuclear test on January 6.
The launch came as the South Korean coastguard reported that around 70 fishing vessels had been forced back to port after GPS navigation issues caused by North Korean radio-wave jamming.
South Korea’s defence ministry said the surface-to-air missile was fired at around 12:45 pm (0345 GMT) from the eastern city of Sondok.
The range and precise trajectory could not immediately be confirmed, a ministry official said. The South’s Yonhap news agency said it flew 100 kilometres (60 miles) into the East Sea (Sea of Japan).
The launch came in the middle of a two-day nuclear security summit being hosted by Barack Obama in Washington, at which North Korea has been the focus of the US president’s talks with the leaders of China, South Korea and Japan.
Obama spoke Thursday of the need to “vigilantly enforce the strong UN security measures” imposed on the North after its latest nuclear test and subsequent long-range rocket launch.
Pyongyang’s state media has labelled the summit a “nonsensical” effort to find fault with the North’s “legitimate access to nuclear weapons”.
Existing UN sanctions ban North Korea from conducting any ballistic missile test, although short-range launches tend to go unpunished.
Last month, the North upped the ante by test-firing two medium-range missiles, which were seen as far more provocative given the threat they pose to neighbours like Japan. Earlier Friday, Seoul said North Korea was using radio waves to jam GPS signals in South Korea, affecting scores of planes and vessels.
“GPS jamming is an act of provocation. We urge the North to stop such provocative acts and behave in a manner that would help improve inter-Korean relations,” Unification Ministry spokesman Jeong Joon-Hee told journalists.
The coastguard said 71 out of 332 fishing boats that set out for sea on Friday morning had to return after GPS problems compromised their navigation systems, Yonhap reported.
N Korea: UN sanctions on shipping ‘inexcusable’
Searches of North Korean ships under new UN sanctions that were imposed in response to Pyongyang’s latest nuclear test are inexcusable and North Korea won’t tolerate them, a North Korean maritime official said.
Some of the toughest measures in the sanctions target North Korea’s shipping network, which has long been under international scrutiny for the possible movement of weapons and other equipment banned by previous UN resolutions.
“The UN Security Council should ensure the peace and security of the world, but it has abandoned its own mission and duty and it's violently trampled on international justice and impartiality,” Nam Hyon Il, of North Korea’s Maritime Administration, which oversees the country’s shipping industry, said on Thursday.
Nam called the sanctions “an infringement of maritime trade activities of a sovereign state, which is inexcusable”. North Korea insists it will not accept any of the UN sanctions against it, including the latest round of restrictions announced in response to its nuclear test in January and subsequent rocket launch.
Inside North Korea, authorities and media always describe the sanctions as if they were forced upon on the UN by the United States. There is no acknowledgement of the role and opinions of China, North Korea's main supporter, in formulating sanctions against Pyongyang.
The new round of sanctions say every member state should inspect the cargo of any North Korean vessel that comes into port, and highlight details of North Korean shipping companies and the names of ships that are specifically targeted.