North Korea reportedly fires banned missiles into ocean

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea on Monday fired four banned ballistic missiles that flew about 620 miles, with three of them landing in Japan’s economic zone, South Korean and Japanese officials said, in a possible reaction to military drills by Washington and Seoul that Pyongyang insists are an invasion rehearsal.

It was not clear what type of missile was fired; Pyongyang has staged missile test-launches of various ranges in recent months, including a new intermediate-range missile in February. 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.

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 Chiefs of Staff said in a statement 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.

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 North 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.