SEOUL, Aug. 9 (Yonhap) — North Korea fired yet more unidentified projectiles into the East Sea on Saturday, South Korea’s military said, the latest launch in a series of saber-rattling moves against the current joint exercise between Seoul and Washington.
Two projectiles were fired from near its eastern coastal city of Hamhung in South Hamgyong Province earlier in the day, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. No other details were immediately known, including their type, flight range and maximum altitude.
“Our military is monitoring the situation in case of additional launches while maintaining a readiness posture,” the JCS said in a brief release.
Saturday’s launch came just four days after the North fired two projectiles believed to be the newly developed short-range ballistic missiles known as KN-23 into the East Sea. It is also the fifth such launch since July 25, when it also fired two short-range missiles.
Such military moves are apparently a show of force against the combined military exercise between South Korea and the United States.
The allies kicked off their summertime military exercise on Monday for about a three-week run, which is meant to test South Korea’s operational capabilities for the conditions-based transition of wartime operational control of combined forces from Washington to Seoul, according to Seoul officials.
Denouncing the exercise as a rehearsal for invasion, however, the North has repeatedly demanded its cancellation and threatened to seek “a new way” rather than engagement.
Sending a letter to U.S. President Donald Trump this week, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un expressed his displeasure with the joint military exercises, Trump said Friday.
