North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said that the live-fire demonstration of newly developed, short-range ballistic missiles was intended to send a warning to the United States and South Korea over their joint military exercises.
According to the Korean Central News Agency, two missiles launched from a western airfield flew across the country and over the area surrounding the capital, Pyongyang, before accurately hitting an island target off its eastern coast.
The North expressed anger at joint military exercise drills between South Korea and US saying it violated agreements reached with US President Donald Trump and South Korea's President Moon Jae-in.
Four rounds of weapons demonstrations took place over in two weeks during a stalemate in nuclear negotiations and after President Donald Trump repeatedly dismissed the significance of the tests, even though the weapons show North Korea's ability to strike at US allies South Korea and Japan and its military bases there. The main drill will begin on August 11.
According to experts, Trump is downplaying North's weapons displays as it allowed the country more room to advance its capabilities and build leverage ahead of negotiations, which could resume sometime after the end of the allies' drills later this month. He might not be in a rush to do a deal as yet.
Lee Sang-min, a spokesman from South Korea's Unification Ministry, said North Korea's recent testing activity doesn't help efforts to stabilize peace and called for Pyongyang to uphold an inter-Korean agreement reached last year to form a joint military committee to discuss reducing military tensions.
The KCNA said the launches early Tuesday verified the reliability and combat ability of "new-type tactical guided missiles." Kim seemed satisfied with the launches and expressed his satisfaction. The foreign ministry said that Pyongyang is still committed to talks with US, but would be forced to think of a new path forward if US and South don't change their positions. According to Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff, the projectiles travelled 279 miles on an apogee of 23 miles at a maximum speed of above Mach 6.9 before landing in waters off the country's eastern coast.
North Korea, in the last two weeks, have shown they can fire short-range missiles in daylight, at night and from several bases. North Korea has denounced Washington and Seoul over their joint military exercises. South Korea confirmed they started Monday but hasn't given details about the drills, which were expected to involve computer simulations and not troops or equipment.
The North's Foreign Ministry said Tuesday the drills "compelled (North Korea) to develop, test and deploy the powerful physical means essential for national defence."
