Seoul: DPRK fires ballistic missiles into ocean

World Today

FILE – In this Feb. 2, 2017 file photo, a mock DPRK Scud-B missile, center left, and South Korean missiles are displayed at Korea War Memorial Museum in South Korea. The DPRK on Monday, March 6, 2017, fired a projectile into the waters off its east coast, South Korea’s military said. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on Monday local time fired “several” banned ballistic missiles that flew about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) into waters off its east coast, South Korea’s military said, an apparent reaction to huge military drills by Washington and Seoul that Pyongyang insists are an invasion rehearsal.

CGTN’s Susan Roberts speaks to CGTN reporter Shane Hahm.

It was not immediately clear what type of missile was fired or the exact number; Pyongyang has staged a series of missile test-launches of various ranges in recent months. The ramped-up tests come as leader Kim Jong Un pushes for a nuclear and missile program that can deter what he calls U.S. and South Korean hostility toward the North.

Seoul and Washington call their military drills on the Korean Peninsula, which remains in a technical state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice and not a peace treaty, defensive and routine.

The South’s Joint Chief of Staff said in a statement that Monday’s launches were made from the Tongchang-ri area in North Pyongan province. The area is the home of the North’s Seohae Satellite Station where it has conducted prohibited long-range rocket launches in recent years.

The DRPK hates the military drills, which run until late April and which analysts say force its impoverished military to respond with expensive deployments and drills of their own. An unidentified spokesman for the North’s General Staff of the Korean People’s Army said last week that Pyongyang’s reaction to the southern drills would be the toughest ever but didn’t elaborate

The DPRK test-launched a new intermediate-range missile in February and conducted two nuclear tests last year. There has also been widespread worry that the North will conduct an ICBM test that, when perfected, could in theory reach U.S. shores. Washington would consider such a capability a major threat.

The United States has 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea as a deterrent against a potential aggression from the North.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Japan lodged a strong protest against the DPRK following reports of the ballistic missiles.

Story by the Associated Press