North Korea fires missiles into sea

Experts: Short-range projectiles don’t appear to violate moratorium

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea on Saturday fired several unidentified short-range projectiles into the sea off its eastern coast, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

South Korea’s military has bolstered its surveillance in case there are additional weapons launches, and South Korean and U.S. authorities are analyzing the details.

If it’s confirmed that the North fired banned ballistic missiles, it would be the first such launch since the North’s November 2017 test of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The South initially reported Saturday that a single missile was fired, but later issued a statement that said “several projectiles” had been launched and that they flew up to 125 miles before splashing into the sea toward the northeast.

Experts say the North may increase these sorts of low-level provocations to apply pressure on the United States to agree to reduce crushing international sanctions.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement that the United States was aware of North Korea’s actions and would continue to monitor the situation.

North Korea wants widespread sanctions relief in return for disarmament moves that the United States has rejected as insufficient.

In a sign of Pyongyang’s growing frustration, it has recently demanded that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo be removed from nuclear negotiations and criticized national security adviser John Bolton. North Korea said last month that it had tested a new type of unspecified “tactical guided weapon.”

During the diplomacy that followed the North’s weapons tests of 2017, Kim Jong Un said that the North would not test nuclear devices or ICBMS. These short-range projectiles don’t appear to violate that self-imposed moratorium, and may instead be a way to register Kim’s displeasure with Washington without having the diplomacy collapse.

The South’s presidential Blue House had no immediate comment on the launches. The country’s liberal president, Moon Jae-in, has doggedly pursued engagement with the North and is seen as a driving force behind the two summits between President Donald Trump and Kim.