North Korea launches detected

Projectiles follow firing of two ballistic missiles days earlier

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast Wednesday, South Korea’s military said, its second weapons test in less than a week. North Korea is angry over planned U.s.-south Korean military drills and may be trying to boost pressure on the United States to win concessions as the rivals struggle to set up talks over the North’s nuclear weapons.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said Wednesday’s missiles were launched from Wonsan, a city the North pushes as a vacation destination but that it also uses as a regular launch site. The joint chiefs’ statement said both missiles were believed to have flown about 155 miles at a maximum altitude of 19 miles and that the South Korean and U.S. militaries were trying to gather more details.

“The North’s repeated missile launches are not helpful to efforts to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula, and we urge (North Korea) to stop this kind of behavior,” the statement said. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe briefly told reporters the launches were “no threat to Japanese national security.”

Six days earlier, North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles that Seoul officials said flew

370 miles before landing in the sea.

U.N. Security Council resolutions ban North Korea from using ballistic technology in any weapons launches. But it’s unlikely that the nation, already under 11 rounds of U.N. sanctions, will be hit with fresh punitive measures.

Japan’s Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya told reporters Wednesday that the most recently launched weapons did not reach Japan’s exclusive economic zone and that officials are still analyzing details.

Wednesday’s launches came hours after a senior U.S. official said President Donald Trump sent leader Kim Jong Un mementos from his brief visit to an inter-korean border town late last month.