North Korea on Monday fired multiple ballistic missiles toward its eastern waters, South Korea's military said, adding to a recent streak of weapons demonstrations that has heightened tensions during a prolonged freeze in diplomacy.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missiles were fired from an area around the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, where the country has used its airport as a major launch site in recent years. The joint chiefs did not immediately specify how many missiles they detected or how far they flew. Japan's Defense Ministry said it detected at least two missiles and assessed that the weapons landed in waters outside the country's exclusive economic zone.The launch came days after South Korea on Friday flight-tested its first domestically developed hypersonic weapon, designed to fly at least five times the speed of sound and evade missile defense systems, which President Lee Jae Myung described as an important step in strengthening the South's conventional defense capabilities.
While maintaining a hard line toward Seoul, North Korea has been ramping up weapons testing as it seeks to expand its arsenal of nuclear-capable systems, including an October 3 test of what the North described as a hypersonic intermediate-range missile designed to evade missile defenses in South Korea and Japan.
North Korea has also conducted other missile tests and live-fire drills and commissioned a new warship as leader Kim Jong Un continues to flaunt his nuclear weapons program while rejecting U.S. and South Korean offers to resume long-stalled diplomacy. - AP
