North Korea has loaded two mid-range missiles on mobile launchers and hidden them in facilities near its east coast, a report said on Friday, fuelling fears of an imminent launch that would sharply escalate tensions.
Yonhap news agency, citing a top South Korean government official, said two intermediate Musudan missiles had been transported by train earlier in the week and “loaded on vehicles equipped with launch pads”.
The Defence Ministry, which on Thursday had confirmed the movement of one missile with “considerable range”, declined to comment on the new report.
But a Navy official told Yonhap that two South Korean Aegis destroyers with advance radar systems had been deployed – one off the east coast and one off the west coast – to track any missile launch.
“If the North fires off a missile, we will trace its trajectory,” the official said.