Seoul protests as Kim Jong-un breaks missiles pact

NORTH KOREAN state media yesterday showed leader Kim Jong-un observing livefire drills of long-range multiple rocket launchers and what appeared to be a new short-range ballistic missile, a day after South Korea expressed concern that the launches were a violation of an inter-Korean agreement to cease all hostile acts.

Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency said Kim expressed ‘great satisfaction’ over Saturday’s drills and stressed that his front-line troops should keep a ‘high alert posture’ and enhance combat ability to ‘defend the political sovereignty’ of the country.

The weapons launches were a likely sign of Pyongyang’s growing frustration at stalled diplomatic talks with Washington meant to provide coveted sanctions relief in return for nuclear disarmament.

They also highlighted the fragility of the detente between the Koreas, which in a military agreement reached last September vowed to completely cease ‘all hostile acts’ against each other in land, air and sea.

South Korea said it’s ‘very concerned’ about North Korea’s weapons launches.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stressed that Washington still wants to strike a deal with Kim to get North Korea to denuclearise. In a TV news broadcast, Mr Pompeo confirmed the weapons launched were short-range missiles.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff initially said on Saturday that the North launched a single missile from the site near the coastal town of Wonsan but later said in a statement that ‘several projectiles’ had been fired. The missiles are reported to have crashed into the sea.