N Korea fires more missiles

North Korea yesterday fired multiple ballistic missiles toward its eastern waters, the South Korean military said, adding to a recent streak of weapons demonstrations that has heightened tensions during a prolonged freeze in diplomacy.

South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff Public Affairs Director Colonel Jang Do-young said missiles of various types were fired from an area around the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, where the country’s main airport has been a major launch site in the past few years.

Jang said one of the missiles flew more than 900km before falling into the, sea but did not comment on the flight details of the other weapons. The joint chiefs did not specify how many missiles it detected.

People watch a TV broadcasting a news report on North Korea firing multiple ballistic missiles toward the sea off its east coast, at a railway station in Seoul yesterday.

Photo: Reuters

Japanese Deputy Minister of Defense Takashi Koyari said Japan detected at least two missiles launched 17 minutes apart and that the weapons landed in waters outside of its exclusive economic zone.

Koyari said the first missile flew about 220km and the second more than 910km, following an “irregular” flight path, a term Japanese officials have previously used to describe hypersonic weapons. There were no reports of damage to aircraft or vessels, he said.

While maintaining a hard line toward Seoul, North Korea has been ramping up weapons testing as it seeks to expand its arsenal of nuclear-capable systems, including an Oct. 3 test of what the North described as a hypersonic intermediate-range missile designed to evade missile defenses in South Korea and Japan.