Several missiles reportedly launched as tensions rise

TOKYO — North Korea launched three missiles into the sea between the Korean Peninsula and Japan on Saturday morning, reigniting tensions after a month of heated rhetoric between Pyongyang and Washington.

The launches coincide with joint exercises between the U.S. and South Korean militaries, exercises that North Korea always strongly protests because it considers them preparation for an invasion.

The first and third missiles failed in flight, while the second appears to have blown up almost immediately, said U.S. Pacific Command in Hawaii, which monitors North Korean missiles.

All three appeared to be short-range missiles, rather than the long-range types designed to be able to strike the United States, and were launched from Kittaeryong on North Korea’s east coast.

“We are working with our interagency partners on a more detailed assessment and we will provide a public update if warranted,” Commander Dave Benham, a spokesman for Pacific Command, said in a statement.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said that a “projectile” had been fired on Saturday morning and that it was working to determine what kind of missile it was, according to the South’s Yonhap News Agency. Early reports suggested that the missiles traveled only 150 miles before falling in the sea.

South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, had been informed, Yonhap said.

Japanese authorities had determined they were ballistic missiles, Japan’s NHK broadcaster and Kyodo News reported.

The Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercises, which mainly involve computer simulations rather than battlefield maneuvers or fly-overs with bombers, are currently taking place in South Korea.

North Korea this week said the exercises were evidence that the United States planned to invade North Korea.

“The reality vividly shows that the U.S. ambition for stifling [North Korea] remains unchanged no matter how much water may flow under the bridge and the puppet group’s ambition for invading the north remains unchanged,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported.