North Korea fires three short-range missiles; U.S. says tests fail

SEOUL, South Korea—Three North Korea short-range ballistic missiles failed on Saturday, U.S. military officials said, which, if true, would be a temporary setback to Pyongyang’s rapid nuclear and missile expansion.

The U.S. Pacific Command said in a statement that two of the North’s missiles failed in flight after an unspecified distance, and another appeared to have blown up immediately. It added that the missile posed no threat to the U.S. territory of Guam, which the North had previously warned it would fire missiles toward.

Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said that the projectiles fired from the North’s eastern coast flew about 155 miles, though it did not mention any failures. It said South Korea and U.S. militaries were analyzing the launch and didn’t immediately provide more details.

South Korea’s presidential office said the U.S. and South Korean militaries will proceed with their ongoing war games “even more thoroughly” in response to the latest 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 U.S. 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.

Early assessments from the U.S. and South Korean militaries suggest that the North Korean launches could be short-range Scud-B or solid-fuel KN-02 missiles, said Kim Dong-yub, a former South Korean military official who is now an analyst at Seoul’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies. While the missile that supposedly blew up immediately after launch was clearly a failure, Kim said it’s too early to judge the flights of the other two missiles, since the North could have been experimenting with developmental technologies or deliberately detonated the warheads at certain heights and locations.