Good evening. Welcome to our 9 PM edition of Arirang News. I’m Kim Bo-kyoung.
We start with the latest from North Korea,
Pyongyang launched yet more missiles early this morning, just a day after the regime denounced South Korea’s inaugural multi-domain military exercises with the U.S. and Japan.
One of the two missiles fired today however, appears to have been a failure.
Our defense correspondent Choi Min-jung reports.
North Korea launched two ballistic missiles toward waters off its east coast early on Monday.
The South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said they were both fired from the Jangyon area of Hwanghaenam-do Province, one launched at around 5:05 AM, and the next at ten minutes later.
The first one, presumed to be a short-range ballistic missile, flew around 600 kilometers before landing in the sea.
*This was followed by a second missile that only traveled around 120 kilometers.
The military said the launch appears to have been unsuccessful,.. and said the debris could have landed near the Pyongyang area.
“There is a possibility that the second missile launched by North Korea may have flown abnormally, during the early stages of flight. If the missile exploded in flight, the debris could have landed inside North Korean territory.”
The JCS assumes that both missiles could be the Hwasong-11 short-range ballistic missiles, which were also test-launched from the Jangyon area last year.
But it has not completely ruled out the possibility of a test launch for a new type of missile.
The military and experts say that the recent launches came in retaliation against the recent Freedom Edge exercise between Seoul, Washington, and Tokyo.
“North Korea was clearly trying to offset the Freedom Edge exercise. They don’t want their people to be thinking that Kim doesn’t have the power to do something in response to an outside exercise.”
The regime recently vowed to take “overwhelming countermeasures,” in response to the trilateral multi-domain military exercise held last week.
It added that such drills show the relationship between the three nations has developed into “the Asian version of NATO.”
But, South Korea’s defense ministry dismissed Pyongyang’s criticism, saying the exercise was held to deter and respond to North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.
Monday’s missile launches also come less than a week after the North claimed to have successfully tested a missile carrying multiple warheads, which the South and the U.S. assessed was a failure.
Choi Min-jung, Arirang News.
Source : Arirang TV, https://www.arirang.com/news/view?id=272632
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