North Korea conducts multiple missile launches over two days, Seoul says

SEOUL, April 8 (UPI) — North Korea fired short-range ballistic missiles on two separate occasions Wednesday, Seoul’s military said, marking three launches over two days after South Korean President Lee Jae Myung expressed regret over a drone incursion.

At 8:50 a.m. Wednesday, the North launched several short-range ballistic missiles from its coastal Wonsan area toward the East Sea, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a text message to reporters.

The missiles flew approximately 150 miles, the JCS said, adding that South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities are analyzing their exact specifications.

“Under a steadfast South Korea-U.S. combined defense posture, the military is closely monitoring North Korea’s various movements and maintaining the capability and readiness to overwhelmingly respond to any provocation,” the JCS said.

North Korea later fired a single short-range ballistic missile from Wonsan toward the East Sea at 2:20 p.m. Wednesday, the JCS said in a separate message. The missile flew approximately 435 miles.

The launches came one day after the South’s military detected an unidentified projectile fired from the Pyongyang area. The JCS said South Korean and U.S. intelligence officials are still analyzing its detailed specifications.

Hawaii-based U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said it detected both days’ launches and was consulting with regional allies and partners.

“Based on current assessments, this event does not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel or territory, or to our allies,” the command said in a statement.

The launches came after a statement by Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, describing President Lee as “frank and broad-minded” after he expressed regret over unauthorized drone incursions into the North.

Lee had addressed the drone issue earlier Monday during a Cabinet meeting, following last week’s indictment of three individuals accused of carrying out incursions between September and January.

“Although this was not an act by our government, I express regret to the North Korean side over the unnecessary military tension caused by such reckless behavior,” Lee said during the meeting.

While Kim’s remarks struck a less hostile tone than recent statements from Pyongyang, she still included a warning to the South to “stop any reckless provocation against the DPRK” and to “refrain from any attempt at contact.”

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is the official name of North Korea.

North Korea’s first vice foreign minister, Jang Kum Chol, later dismissed Seoul’s positive interpretation of the remarks, calling them a “hope-filled dream reading.”

In a statement released late Tuesday and carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, Jang said that the South’s identity as “the enemy state most hostile to the DPRK can never change with any words or conduct by its chief executive.”

Victor Cha, president of the geopolitics and foreign policy department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, cautioned against reading into the timing of the launches relative to Kim’s drone statement.

“I’m more and more of the view that the recent missile demonstrations we’ve seen by North Korea are not testing and they’re not political statements — they’re exercising,” Cha told UPI during a press briefing at the Asan Plenum policy forum in Seoul.

“I don’t think [North Korea] had any notion of when the South Koreans were going to convey communications on the drone activity,” Cha said. “If anything, these [launches] just happened to be on parallel tracks.”

North Korea last fired ballistic missiles toward the East Sea on March 14 as the United States and South Korea held their annual springtime joint military exercise. Pyongyang later said the launches were part of a firepower strike drill involving 600mm multiple rocket launchers overseen by Kim Jong Un.