North Korea still seeking attention on world stage, holds sixth missile launch in three days
North Korea fired two short-range missiles on Monday, making six launches in three days, and it condemned South Korea for criticizing what it said were its legitimate military drills. The projectile landed safely away from neighboring countries in the sea off North Korea’s east coast.
North Korea is now threatening US bases photo: A screen image released by the Korean Central News Agency believed to show the Unha-3 rocket lifting off in North Korea back in March
As The New York Times reported that South Korean officials moved away from calling the objects missiles, as they did yesterday. Today, they used the word “short-range projectiles,” because “hey may have included not only the modified KN-02 short-range guided missile but also rockets from its new multiple launcher.”
South Korea’s Defense Ministry said North Korea had fired one missile on Monday morning and a second one in the afternoon.
The launches come hard on the heels of more than two months of threats from North Korea that it would wage a nuclear war against South Koreaand the United States if it were attacked.
The North condemned joint U.S. and South Korean military exercises, that ended in late April, as a rehearsal for an attack on its territory. The regime had threatened US bases as well as South Korea during the Spring.
“We are conducting intense military exercises to strengthen our defense capacity,” North Korea’s KCNA news agency quoted the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, the body that handles inter-Korean issues, as saying on Monday.
“Our military is conducting these exercises in order to cope with the mounting war measures from the U.S. and South Korea, which is the legitimate right of any sovereign country.”
“North Korea will achieve nothing by threats or provocations, which only further isolate [North Korea] and undermine international efforts to ensure peace and stability in Northeast Asia,” said Caitlin Hayden, spokeswoman for the National Security Council in the U.S. “We continue to urge the North Korean leadership to heed President Obama’s call to choose the path of peace and come into compliance with its international obligations.”
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