North Korea fires series of missiles toward sea

Seoul: North Korea fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles toward the sea Wednesday in its second launch event in two days, South Korea’s military said, hours after a senior North Korean official released crude insults against Seoul’s hopes for warmer relations. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said several missiles lifted off from North Korea’s eastern coastal Wonsan area on Wednesday morning and flew about 240 kilometres each in a direction toward the North’s eastern waters.

It said an additional North Korean ballistic missile fired later Wednesday travelled more than 700 kilometres off the North’s east coast. Japan’s Defence Ministry said it assesses that the missile fell in waters outside the country’s exclusive economic zone. South Korea’s military said it maintains a readiness to repel any provocations by North Korea under a solid military alliance

with the United States. It earlier said it detected the launch of an unidentified projectile from North Korea’s capital region on Tuesday. South Korean media reported the projectile, also likely a ballistic missile, disappeared from South Korean military radars after displaying an abnormal development in the initial launch stage. This indicated the launch ended in failure, according to the reports.

The US Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement that the North Korean launches had not posed any immediate threat to US personnel or territory, or to allies.