N Korea fires four missiles, three land near Japan
SEOUL: North Korea on Monday fired four banned ballistic missiles that flew about 1,000 kilometers, with three of them landing in Japan’s exclusive economic zone, South Korean and Japanese officials said, in an apparent reaction to huge military drills by Washington and Seoul that Pyongyang insists are an invasion rehearsal.
It was not immediately clear the exact type of missile fired; Pyongyang has staged a series of missile test-launches of various ranges in recent months, including a new intermediaterange missile in February. The ramped-up tests come as leader Kim Jong Un pushes for a nuclear and missile programme that can deter what he calls US and South Korean hostility toward the North.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Monday’s firing shows that North Korea has become “a new kind of threat”. Japanese officials said three of the four missiles landed in the 200-nautical-mile offshore area where Tokyo has sovereign rights for exploring and exploiting resources.
South Korea’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 US military said on Sunday it detected and tracked what it assessed was a North Korean missile launch at 4:34pm CST, but added the launch did not pose a threat to North America.
US Strategic Command spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Martin O’Donnell said US forces “remain vigilant in the face of North Korean provocations and are fully committed to working closely with our Republic of Korea and Japanese allies to maintain security”.
MALAYSIAN ENVOY TO BE EXPELLED
North Korea said on Monday it would expel Malaysia’s ambassador after its own envoy was ordered out of the Southeast Asian nation, in an increasingly bitter row over the assassination of Kim Jong Nam at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. The report came shortly after the North’s ambassador Kang Chol flew home from Kuala Lumpur.