North Korea fires short-range missiles: US military

SEOUL, Aug 26 (AFP) - North Korea fired three short-range ballistic missiles Saturday, the US military said, reviving tensions with Washington after President Donald Trump had said Pyongyang was starting to show some “respect”.

The launches come as tens of thousands of South Korean and US troops take part in joint military drills in the south of the peninsula, which the North views as highly provocative.

Following an initial US assessment saying that two of the missiles had “failed in flight”, a spokesman for the US Pacific Command later said the two weapons had not failed but “flew approximately 250 kilometres in a northeastern direction”.One of the three missiles blew up “almost immediately”, with none of the weapons posing a threat to either North America or the US territory of Guam, the spokesman said.

Lee Il-Woo, an analyst at Korea Defence Network, said the launches represented a “low-level provocative act” carried out in response to the US- South Korea exercises, which are seen by Pyongyang as a rehearsal for an invasion of its own territory. The joint exercises started Monday at a time of heightened tensions between Pyongyang and Washington, after two successful intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launches carried out by North Korea last month apparently brought most of the United States into range for the first time.

Analyst Yang Uk at the Korea Defence and Security Forum told AFP the latest launches by Pyongyang were “carefully calibrated... to avoid revving up tensions too high beyond its control”.

The launches, which took place over a span of 30 minutes, came as North Korean state media reported that leader Kim Jong-Un oversaw a military exercise simulating a special forces assault on South Korean border islands involving aircraft, “multiple-missile launchers” and howitzers. Shells hit islands standing in for South Korea's Baengnyeong and Yeonpyeong islands while special forces landed in rubber boats or parachuted in and “wiped out the desperate enemy with various combat methods”, the Korean Central News Agency said.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Saturday that Trump was aware of the launches.

Neither Japan nor South Korea confirmed the US military's description of the weapons fired by North Korea as “ballistic missiles”. South Korea's defence ministry said “unidentified projectiles”, fired at 6:49 am (2149 GMT Friday), flew some 250 kilometres towards the Sea of Japan.The North's missiles have alarmed Japan since a Taepodong-1 overflew its territory in 1998.

In April 2009, Pyongyang launched a long-range rocket which flew over Japan in what it said was an attempt to put a satellite into orbit, but which was seen by the US, Japan and South Korea as a disguised test of a Taepodong-2.

Under Kim Jong-un, Pyongyang has made rapid strides in its ballistic missile technology in violation of UN resolutions, and it has been penalised by seven sets of sanctions. “We understand that today's action indicated North Korea consistently continues developing nuclear weapons and missiles. We have to respond firmly,” said Onodera.