Seoul, South Korea:
North Korea fired multiple rocket launchers on Sunday, Seoul said, the latest in a series of provocations by the nuclear-armed country to heighten tensions in the region.
Pyongyang launched a series of banned weapons this year and tested parts of a “reconnaissance satellite,” though Seoul and Washington have described them as a new ICBM system.
“There were shots this morning believed to have come from multiple North Korea missile launchers,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a text message to reporters.
“Our military maintains our defense readiness and is closely monitoring related developments,” it added, without further details.
Four shots were fired into western waters for an hour as of 7:20 a.m. from an unspecified location in South Pyongan province, the Yonhap news agency reported citing unnamed officials.
The intent of the shooting was being evaluated, the report added.
South Korea’s National Security Council held an emergency meeting and called for a tight stance to “avoid a security vacuum during the government’s transition period,” according to a statement from the presidential Blue House.
President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol will be inaugurated on May 10 after winning the March 9 polls.
Pyongyang has long had the ability to devastate Seoul – which is only about 60 kilometers (40 miles) from the border – with artillery fire.
The US is stationing 28,500 troops in South Korea, a security ally, to protect it from its nuclear-armed neighbor, many of them south of Seoul at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek – the largest overseas military facility.
Sunday’s shelling comes just days after Pyongyang conducted a suspected failed ballistic missile test in what analysts say could be the country’s new intercontinental ballistic missile.
The US and South Korea have said North Korea is preparing to fire an ICBM at full range for the first time since 2017, possibly disguised as a space launch.
(This story was not edited by DailyExpertNews staff and was generated automatically from a syndicated feed.)