South Korea’s military leadership announced Saturday morning that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) had twice fired unidentified projectiles into the Sea of Japan from Sondok, South Hamgyong Province, in a mirror of recent ballistic missile tests, according to Sputniknews.com reports.
“Our military is monitoring the situation in case of additional launches and maintaining a readiness posture,” the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said, according to Yonhap News Agency. Further, the Blue House announced a meeting of the National Security Council would soon follow as a result of the test.
The Japanese Coast Guard said they detected the launch, which did not land in Japan’s territory or Exclusive Economic Zone, and warned ships to stay clear of any refuse in the water.
Saturday’s test comes a week after the country’s previous weapons test, which saw it fire two short-range ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan, as it has done numerous times in recent months. The most recent tests have been protest messages by Pyongyang against South Korean participation in war games with the US, but it’s unknown what Saturday’s test was in response to, if anything.
However, the test does follow a growing row between Seoul and Tokyo that has expanded to encompass not only economic relations but defence cooperation as well, with the two countries agreeing to share intelligence only through an intermediary power.
Neither Korea gets along well with Japan, as the entire region was colonized for decades by the Japanese Empire and a number of contentious and unresolved issues remain between them.
However, South Korea has announced a large military expansion in recent weeks, which it says is in response to North Korean weapons tests.
“The ministry has decided to concentrate on enhancing defence capabilities to make leading responses to security threats from all directions possible, as well as on building and properly managing a smart military based upon state-of-the-art science technologies,” the South Korean Defense Ministry said in an August 14 statement.
The post North Korea Fired Two Unidentified Projectiles Into Sea of Japan – South Korean Military appeared first on Independent Newspapers Nigeria.
Source: Independent
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