N. Korea fires 2 short-range missiles into East Sea: JCS
SEOUL. KAZINFORM - North Korea on Thursday fired two short-range missiles from near its east coast town of Wonsan into the East Sea, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, Yonhap reports.
The incident came amid growing uncertainty over theprospects for working-level talks that the leaders of North Korea and the U.S.agreed to hold in the near future when they met at the inter-Korean border lastmonth.
«(The North) fired one short-range missile ataround 5:34 a.m. and the other at 5:57 a.m., from Hodo Peninsula near itseastern coastal town of Wonsan into the East Sea,» the JCS said.
One missile flew around 430 kilometers and the otherappeared to travel a bit farther based upon an analysis by the United States, aJCS officer said, adding that both flew at an altitude of around 50 kilometers.
They were presumed to have been fired from atransporter erector launcher (TEL) and landed in the East Sea, the officernoted.
«We believe that (North Korean leader) KimJong-un has recently stayed in the region, and summertime military drills arenow under way in the North. We have been closely monitoring thesituation,» he noted.
More analysis is needed to verify if they wereballistic missiles or not and whether they were the same type of short-rangemissiles that the North test-fired twice in May, according to the officer.
«Our military is closely monitoring the situationin case of additional launches while maintaining a readiness posture,» theJCS said.