N Korea fires missiles

5th test in a month

SEOUL, June 8, (Agencies): North Korea launched a volley of surfaceto-ship cruise missiles off its east coast Thursday, Seoul’s defence ministry said, Pyongyang’s fifth test in less than a month in defiance of global pressure to rein in its weapons program.

The launches come less than a week after the United Nations expanded sanctions against Kim Jong-Un’s regime in response to recent ballistic missile tests.

“North Korea fired multiple unidentified projectiles, assumed to be surface-to-ship cruise missiles,” the defence ministry said, adding the short range missiles flew some 200 kms (124 miles) before falling into the Sea of Japan.

Pyongyang has ordered three ballistic missile launches, a surface-toair missile, and Thursday’s cruise missile tests since the South’s President Moon Jae-in took power in early May.

Moon advocated reconciliation with Seoul’s isolated, unpredictable neighbour but has taken a more stern position in the wake of the missile tests, which pose a policy challenge to the left-leaning leader.

“The only thing North Korea will earn through provocations is international isolation and economic hardship, and it will lose opportunities for development,” Moon said at a meeting of the National Security Council Thursday, according to Blue House spokesman Park SooHyun.

Seoul “will not take a single step back or make compromises over the issue of national security or the safety of its people,” Moon said, according to his spokesman.

Thursday’s launch “was aimed at showing off various missile capabilities and antiship precision strike capability,” a spokesman for South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff told reporters, adding it did not appear to have violated UN sanctions.

Cruise missile tests do not contravene UN regulations, Korea Defence Network analyst Lee Il-Woo told AFP, adding they were “much slower than ballistic missiles and can be shot down by antiaircraft guns”.

Also: WASHINGTON:

After a successful May test, the Pentagon has upgraded its assessment of its ability to defend the United States against incoming intercontinental ballistic missiles, like the ones North Korea is attempting to develop, according to a memo seen by Reuters on Wednesday.

The conclusion could add to the US military’s view that, although much more work remains on missile defense, it is staying ahead of a mounting threat from North Korea, which has declared its intent to develop an ICBM capable of striking the US mainland.