North Korea test-launches 2 ballistic missiles, after end of new US-South Korea-Japan drill

Seoul: North Korea test-fired two ballistic missile Monday, South Korea’s military said, a day after the North vowed “offensive and overwhelming” responses to a new US military drill with South Korea and Japan.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missiles were launched 10 minutes apart in a northeastern direction from the town of Jangyon in southeastern North Korea.

It said the first missile flew 600 kilometres (370 miles) and the second missile 120 kilometres (75 miles), but didn’t say where they landed. North Korea typically test-fires missiles toward its eastern waters, but the second missile’s flight distance was too short to reach those waters.

South Korean media said an unidentified South Korean military source reported that it was highly likely

the second missile crashed in an inland area of the North. Possible damages on the North’s ground weren’t immediately reported.

The reports said the first missile landed in the waters off the North’s eastern city of Chongjin.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, which did not comment on the media reports, said South Korea maintains a firm readiness to repel any provocations by North Korea in conjunctions with the military alliance with the United States.

The launch came two days after South Korea, the US and Japan ended their new multidomain trilateral drills in the region.

In recent years, the three countries have been expanding their trilateral security partnership to better

cope with North Korea’s evolving nuclear threats and China’s increasing assertiveness in the region.