North Korea fired a new type of short-range ballistic missile in two launches into the sea Thursday, South Korean officials said, in its first weapons launches in more than two months and an apparent effort to pressure Washington as Pyongyang and Washington struggle to restart nuclear negotiations.
The South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missiles were fired from near the eastern coastal town of Wonsan and flew about 270 miles and 430 miles before landing off the country’s east coast.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff described both missiles as short-range but didn’t elaborate. But after a national security council meeting later Thursday, South Korea’s presidential Blue House said the weapons North Korea launched were assessed as “a new kind of short-range ballistic missiles.”
North Korea is banned by U.N. Security Council resolutions from engaging in any launch using ballistic technology. So North Korea could face international condemnation over the latest launches. But it’s still unlikely for the North, already under 11 rounds of U.N. sanctions, to be hit with fresh punitive measures because the U.N. council has typically imposed new sanctions only when the North conducted long-range ballistic launches, not short-range ballistic launches.
A South Korean defense official, requesting anonymity because of department rules, said that an initial analysis showed both missiles were fired from mobile launchers and flew at a maximum altitude of 30 miles.