North Korea launches two rockets, South Korea says
North Korea launched two rockets from its east coast Thursday, days after firing artillery near a disputed sea border, South Korean defense officials said.
The South Korean military said the two short-range projectiles were launched from what North Korea calls a “super-large multiple rocket launcher,” a new weapon used in some of the North’s recent tests.
The rockets flew up to 236 miles before landing in waters between North Korea and Japan, the military said.
It was the first weapons test by the North since its leader, Kim Jong Un, ordered troops to fire artillery during a visit Saturday to a front-line military unit near a disputed western sea border between the two Koreas.
The North Korean state media revealed that test Monday — drawing a protest from South Korea, which accused the North of violating an agreement not to conduct military drills near the border.
The launches Thursday were the latest in a series carried out by the North since its talks with the Trump administration over its nuclear weapons have stalled.
North Korea announced an end to its nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests in April 2018, two months before Kim’s first summit meeting with President Donald Trump in Singapore. At those discussions, Kim committed to “work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula” in return for better relations and security guarantees from Washington.
But subsequent negotiations on how to implement the broadly worded deal have since collapsed, and North Korea has resumed a series of mostly short-range rocket or ballistic missile tests. On Oct. 31, it launched two projectiles, also from a “super-large” rocket launcher.
Such tests have largely been seen as demonstrations of growing impatience on Kim’s part. North Korea has repeatedly urged Washington to return to the negotiating table with a more flexible proposal by the end of this year.