N Korea fires 2 more missiles; 7th in 2 weeks
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Seoul: South Korean (SK) military informed that North Korea (NK) fired two ballistic missiles into the sea on Sunday morning. The fresh launches were the seventh in two weeks by the NK, carried out hours after a nuclear-powered US aircraft carrier marked the end of joint military drills with SK, Agence France-Presse reported.
In recent weeks, the US, SK, and Japan have run combined naval exercises, which has triggered NK. NK sees that the exercises are rehearsals for an invasion and uses the same to justify its multiple missile launches and calls the same "countermeasures".
After the talks got stalled, the NK administration doubled the weapon testing programmes and fired an intermediate range ballistic missile over Japan last week. NK Officials and analysts warned that it had completed preparations for another nuclear test.
On Sunday, the SK military said that it had detected two short-range ballistic missiles, 0148 and 0158 (1648-1658 GMT). The same were fired from the Munchon area in Kangwon province and aimed at the East Sea or the Sea of Japan.
SK's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that the launches travelled some 350 km at an altitude of 90 km. The officer called the launches a "serious provocation".
Further, Japan also confirmed the firing as the coast guard testified that the missiles landed outside Japan's exclusive economic zone.
Japanese senior vice defence minister Toshiro Ino said that the administration was examining the missiles and added that one of the two must be launched from a submarine or was a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM).
In September, Seoul said that it had detected signs that NK was preparing to fire an SLBM. It was last tested by NK in May.
Meanwhile, the US military's Indo-Pacific Command released a statement saying that it is "consulting closely with our allies and partners", AFP quoted. The command further said that the launches underscore the "destabilising" nature of NK's missile programmes.