N. Korea fires short-range missiles

China bans new business with North Korea

SEOUL, South Korea, Aug 26, (Agencies): North Korea fired several rockets into the sea Saturday in the continuation of its rapid nuclear and missile expansion, prompting South Korea to press ahead with military drills involving US troops that have angered Pyongyang.

The US Pacific Command revised its initial assessment that the first and third short-range missiles failed during flight to say they flew about 250 kms (155 miles). It said that the second missile appears to have blown up immediately and that none posed threat to the US territory of Guam, which the North had previously warned it would fire missiles toward.

South Korea’s presidential office and military said North Korea fired “several” projectiles in what was presumed as a test of its 300-millimeter rocket artillery system.

Kim Dong-yub, a former South Korean military official who is now an analyst at Seoul’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies, said that South Korean assessment doesn’t necessarily contradict the US evaluation that the launches involved ballistic missiles. North Korea’s large-sized artillery rockets blur the boundaries between artillery systems and ballistic missiles because they create their own thrust and are guided during delivery, Kim said.

The presidential office in Seoul said the US and South Korean militaries will proceed with their ongoing war games “even more thoroughly” in response to the launch. They are the first known missile firings since July, when the North successfully flight tested a pair of intercontinental ballistic missiles that analysts say could reach deep into the US mainland when perfected.

The White House said that President Donald Trump — who has warned that he would unleash “fire and fury” if the North continued its threats — was briefed on the latest North Korean activity and “we are monitoring the situation.”

The rival Koreas recently saw their always testy relationship get worse after Trump traded warlike threats. Saturday’s launch comes during an annual joint military exercise between the United States and South Korea that the North condemns as an invasion rehearsal, and weeks after Pyongyang threatened to lob missiles toward Guam.

North Korea had walked back from the threat to lob missiles toward Guam, but there had been concerns that hostility will flare up again during the Ulchi-Freedom Guardian drills between the allies that run through Aug 31.

However, some experts say North Korea is now mainly focused on the bigger picture of testing its bargaining power against the United States with its new long-range missiles and likely has no interest in letting things get too tense during the drills. They say the North may limit its reactions to low-level provocations like artillery and short-range missile launches.

While the projectile that supposedly blew up immediately after launch was clearly a failure, Kim, the analyst, said the North

South Korean president Park Geun-hye marched in Seoul on Saturday to protest a court ruling that appeared to support key corruption charges against her.

Waving South Korea’s national flag and the US Stars and Stripes, the demonstrators shouted “Release innocent President Park Geun-hye” and called for the resignation of liberal President Moon Jae-in, who took power in May after winning a presidential byelection following Park’s removal from office.

Ongoing

Some of the demonstrators scuffled with pedestrians as they marched toward the streets near the presidential Blue House, while other pro-Park groups held separate rallies nearby.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency didn’t provide a crowd estimate. But a police officer at the scene, who didn’t want to be named because he wasn’t authorized to speak to journalists, said about 8,000 people participated in the march.

Police couldn’t immediately with the other missiles could have been experimenting with developmental technologies or deliberately detonated the warheads at certain heights and locations. If the South Korean assessments are correct, the North might have conducted tests to expand the range of its 300-millimeter multiple rocket launchers, which are believed to have a radius of up to 200 kilometers (124 miles), Kim said.

North Korea’s state media earlier Saturday said that leader Kim Jong Un inspected a special operation forces training of the country’s army that simulated attacks on South Korean islands along the countries’ western sea border in what appeared to be in response to the ongoing US-South Korea war games.

Kim reportedly told his troops that they “should think of mercilessly wiping out the enemy with arms only and occupying Seoul at one go and the southern half of Korea.”

The Korean Central News Agency said that the “target striking contest” involved war planes, multiple-rocket launchers and self-propelled guns that attacked targets meant to represent South Korea’s Baengnyeong and Yeonpyeong islands before special operation combatants “landed by surprise” on rubber boats.

The border islands have occasionally seen military skirmishes between the rivals, including a North Korean artillery barrage on Yeonpyeong in 2010 that left two South Korean marines and two civilians dead.

In response to North Korea’s expanding nuclear weapons program, South Korea has been moving to strengthen its own capabilities, planning talks with the United States on raising the warhead limits on its missiles and taking steps to place additional launchers to a US anti-missile defense system in the country’s southeast.

South Korea has also been testing new missiles of its own, including the 800-kilometer (497 mile)-range Hyunmoo-2. Although the missile has not been operationally deployed yet, it is considered a key component to the so-called “kill chain” pre-emptive strike capability the South is pursuing to cope with the North’s growing nuclear and missile threat.

BEIJING:

Also:

China’s commerce ministry late on Friday banned North Korean individuals and enterprises from doing new business in China, in line with United Nations Security Council sanctions passed earlier this month.

New joint venture enterprises, new wholly owned businesses and the expansion of existing entities involving North Korean individuals or companies are prohibited in China, according to a notice released on the ministry’s website.

Applications for Chinese new or expanded investment in North Korea by Chinese companies would not be approved, the ministry said. The new measures take effect immediately.

New sanctions by China, Japan, the United States and the United Nations are aimed at pressuring Pyongyang to end its nuclear weapons programme.

confirm whether it was the biggest pro-Park rally at the capital since Moon took office.

The march on Saturday came a day after a Seoul court sentenced Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong to five years in prison for a variety of crimes, including offering bribes to Park.

Following protests by millions and impeachment by lawmakers in December, Park was formally removed from office and arrested in March over broad corruption charges. She is undergoing her

own criminal trial that is expected to produce a ruling around midOctober. (AP)

Body of US Marine recovered:

The remains of the third and final US Marine killed when a military aircraft crashed off the east Australian coast have been recovered, the Marine Corps said on Friday.

There were 26 people aboard the tilt-rotor MV-22 Osprey when it plunged into the sea near the Queensland state city of Rockhampton during military exercises on Aug 5.

Marine 1st Lt Benjamin Cross, 26, of Oxford, Maine; Cpl Nathaniel Ordway, 21, of Sedgwick, Kansas; and Pfc Ruben Velasco, 19, of Los Angeles, were killed in the crash.

Ordway and Velasco’s remains were soon recovered, transferred to Hickham Air Force Base in Hawaii and were being sent on to their families.

“Cross’ remains have now been recovered and will also be sent to Hawaii,” 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit 1st Lt Joseph Butterfield said in a statement. He said that at Hickham, the fallen service members are prepared for transport to their final destination as determined by the families.

The 23 others who were on the aircraft were rescued.

The Osprey is a tilt-rotor aircraft that takes off and lands like a helicopter, but flies like an airplane. It has been involved in a series of high-profile crashes in recent years. (AP)