North Korea fires more projectiles into sea, claims South

There has been a recent streak of weapons displays by North Korea Credit: Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP

South Korea’s military says North Korea has fired more projectiles into the sea to extend a recent streak of weapons tests believed to be aimed at pressuring Washington and Seoul over slow nuclear diplomacy.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said projectiles were twice launched from an area on the North’s eastern coast, but did not immediately say what the weapons were, how many were launched or how far they flew.

It was North Korea’s sixth round of weapons launches since late July when it began stepping up its demonstrations while expressing frustration over stalemated nuclear negotiations with the United States and continuance of US-South Korea joint military drills that the North sees as an invasion rehearsal.

South Korea’s presidential office said national security adviser Chung Eui-yong was presiding over an emergency National Security Council meeting about the launches and president Moon Jae-in was being briefed on the developments.

Japan’s Defence Ministry said the North Korean projectiles did not reach the country’s territorial waters or its exclusive economic zone.

The weapons the North tested in recent weeks included a new rocket artillery system and what security analysts say are two new short-range mobile ballistic missile systems. Credit: AP Photo/Lee Jin-man

The White House said it was aware of reports of the launches and was consulting with Seoul and Tokyo.

The weapons the North tested in recent weeks included a new rocket artillery system and what security analysts say are two new short-range mobile ballistic missile systems that would potentially expand the North’s ability to strike targets throughout South Korea, including US bases there.

Experts say US president Donald Trump’s downplaying of the North’s launches allowed the country more room to intensify its testing activity while it seeks to build leverage ahead of a possible resumption of negotiations, which could happen some time after the end of the allied drills later this month.

The North has ignored South Korean calls for dialogue recently and is seen as dialling up pressure on Seoul to coax major concessions from Washington on its behalf.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff alerted reporters to the launches hours after the North issued a statement berating South Korea, saying it was “senseless” for Seoul to hope for a resumption of inter-Korean dialogue while it continued its military exercises with the United States.

The statement by the North’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country came a day after Mr Moon said in a speech that the momentum for dialogue remained alive despite the series of “worrying actions taken by North Korea recently”.