North Korea fires two ballistic missiles in latest ‘warning’ to South over military drills with US
- The North is banned from ballistic missile launches under UN Security Council resolutions but it was the second such firing in less than a week
- Washington stations nearly 30,000 troops in the South to defend it from its neighbour, which invaded in 1950
Pyongyang fired two ballistic missiles on Wednesday, Seoul said, days after a similar launch that the nuclear-armed North described as a warning to the South over planned joint military drills with the United States.
The two devices were fired from the Wonsan area on the east coast at dawn and flew around 250km, said South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“We stress a series of missile launches do not help ease tensions in the Korean peninsula and urge the North to refrain from such acts,” they said in a statement.
The North is banned from ballistic missile launches under UN Security Council resolutions but it was the second such firing in less than a week, despite a meeting between leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump last month.
Pyongyang and Washington are engaged in a long-running diplomatic process over the North’s nuclear and missile programmes that has seen three high-profile encounters between their leaders in the space of a year.
They agreed to resume talks during their impromptu June encounter in the Demilitarised Zone that divides the peninsula, but that working-level dialogue has yet to begin.
Pyongyang has warned the negotiations could be derailed by Washington and Seoul’s refusal to scrap the annual manoeuvres between their forces.
The North has defied years of isolation and sanctions to develop its arsenal and has not given up any of its weapons, while proving itself adept at dragging out discussions.